The Reclamation has Begun
by Fade Maybe
Summary: The Requiem events has ended. The UNSC discovers another Halo, Instillation 02, it was only a matter of time before they find another Halo but that is not also what they find. A Relay leading them to find the unknowns of the galaxy out of the Orion Arm, but unknowable they have set the final test for the Inheritors. The Reclamation Has Begun and we are to late to stop it.
1. First Into Breach

**AN: If I get any of the Mythos wrong or if there is something I can do to improve it please PM me also thanks to Primordial Soul and Jaing for Betaing and editing **

**2557 Military Calendar, 0836, 3 days after the Requiem Events 15,000 Kilometers outside of Installation 02**

**Aboard UNSC **_**Legend After**_

It's been almost a day since the Elites discovered Installation 02, another Halo Ring; the Eggheads back on Earth have been going crazy. Of course it was only a matter of time before somebody in this galaxy found another ring.

But this wasn't the only major discovery that got the Eggheads hopping.

1 day ago, around 15,000 kilometers away from the Halo, an Elite scout vessel picked up massive dark energy readings from the sector. They came to investigate and found this.

It was a structure 15 kilometers long. It had two long curved arms surrounding what appeared to be two rings encircling each other. The whole structure was completely covered in ice.

It appeared to have some Forerunner designs but it was different enough to have been created by another race.

When the Eggheads started their investigation, they had no idea what it was or what it did; all they knew was that it emitted massive dark energy readings. They said if they got a research vessel close enough, they may be able to find out more about the structure.

The UNSC were now taking extreme precautions. After the discovery of Installation 04 which lead to the ring's destruction, the destruction of the Pillar of Autumn and the death of Captain Jacob Keyes one of the best naval leaders in UNSC history, Installation 05, which lead to a battle then the vaporization of a local research station later, Installation 00, which in the end was completely destroyed when John-117 sacrificed (though there were rumors that he is still alive and serving on Infinity but those are just rumors) himself to stop the threat of the Flood menace to save humanity and the galaxy, and finally the incident of Installation 03 research station, which ended up in everybody there turning into ash. Literally.

So after all these nice little events, well…..the UNSC didn't want another incident or battle raging over an ancient Forerunner Installation.

But…they still gave a green light to the Eggheads despite everything that happened when the UNSC messed with a Forerunner installation

This is why Captain Mark Florence was here.

He was around 5 foot 11 inches tall; with very light brown skin giving away his Spanish-Italian heritage. He had sleek black hair reaching two inches above where his neck meet with his shoulders (way over regulation), which also gave away his Spanish-Italian heritage.

Captain Florence was on his newly assigned ship _Legend After, _a 1,110 meter, Marathon class cruiser. His old ship, the _Devil's Honor, _and its entire crew were destroyed two weeks ago by Covenant Loyalists at the edge of UNSC space. He had become a Captain at age 21 in 2552, a UNSC record for youngest Captain.

His new naval crew and A.I. were completely green, straight out of academy. The only other officer with experience besides Mark was Head Engineer Jason Knight.

"_That ONI bastard killed my crew, ship and A.I."_ Mark thought "_you killed them, leaving me and Jason alive. If you wanted me dead THEN JUST KILL ME, NOT THEM."_

He put an end to those thoughts, for now.

"_Not now_." Thought Florence "_He's dead, it's over."_

His job was to guard the UNSC research vessel _Shadow of an Old Dawn_ and UNSC Black Cat prowler _To The Right _while they were investigating the recently discovered structure which HIGHCOM now designated as 'God's Key'.

"Captain, research vessel is going to make an attempt to try and get on the port side of God's Key. They want your confirmation." Reported his Navigator, Shuya Nanahara

"Tell them to wait as I bring the _Legend After_ and _To The Right_ close."

"Sir, shouldn't we report to Lord Hood for confirmation?"

"Not everything we do Nanahara will result in something catastrophic."

Shuya looked at him with doubt then turned back to his console.

"_Come on, we're just bringing the ship closer, not releasing the Flood. Besides, whatever it can do can't be that bad, it's only 15 kilometers. And if it did anything dangerous, I'll just destroy it" _thought Mark.

"Contradiction, bring the ship closer to the port side of _Shadow of an Old Dawn_." Said Florence

"Captain, you must report everything to Lord Hood before you can do anything. He also ordered that all ships were to stay five clicks away from God's Key." Said Contradiction as he appeared next to Florence on the holo-projector

Contradiction, the ship's A.I, always appeared in a plain T-shirt, baggy jeans, with some ancient type of sneakers with a black check on them and curly hair, capped with a Super Bowl 47 Ravens hat.

"Just do it, Contradiction."

"Sorry sir. My orders from Lord Hood were to make sure you follow orders."

Mark suddenly remembered how much he hated his new A.I.; he was such an uptight jackass. What he hated most though was the fact that it was assigned by Lord Hood to make sure he followed orders.

"_So I disobey orders from superiors once…..ok twice…..multiply times….every time" _thought Mark "_but every time I disobeyed orders it either ended up in victory or saving countless lives."_

"Fine then" Said Mark plainly. He then reached for his comms "Engineer Knight, will you please kindly terminate the A.I's connection to the bridge?"

"Yes sir." Knight replied over Mark's comms.

"Sorry sir, you can't do that…wait Engineer Knight, what are you doing!?" yelled Contradiction

"_Too bad the A.I doesn't know that Engineer Knight served with me on my last ship and is very loyal to me." _thought Mark.

"CAPTAIN YOU CAN"T HAVE ME CUT OFF! I WAS ASSINGED…." Before Contradiction can finish his sentence, his connection was terminated.

"Thank God we got rid of him." Mark said in relief, he looked over to his Navigator. "Take us in about half a kilometer from the research vessel."

"Yes, sir. It's your court-marshal." Replied Shuya

In response, Mark just smirked.

The ship slightly rumbled as the _Legend After_ and _To The Right _were brought port side of the research vessel.

"This is Captain Florence to _Shadow Of An Old Dawn_ you have green lights." Mark said over the comms.

"Roger that." Replied the Captain of the research vessel

He could see out the bridge window as the research vessel was brought way too close for comfort next to the two rings.

Then that was when everything went to shit.

The two rings started to spin around each other at first ever slowly then faster and faster. A blue ball of energy formed within the rings and all the ice on God's key broke off.

"What's going on!" yelled Mark

"Sir, I'm picking up massive dark energy readings! It's completely off the chart!" yelled his XO Jessica Reed.

"Right! Get Contradiction's connection to the bridge online, raise shields…."

Before he can finish, a blue aura of energy completely surrounded the ship.

Then they were shot out like a bat out of hell into a blue space that reminded Florence too much of Star Wars, mainly how they jumped to light speed. The force knocked Florence into his command chair.

Then as suddenly as they were launched, they were back in the familiar blackness of space.

"TELL ME WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?" Yelled the Captain

"Sir we are at unknown coordinates, out of the Orion Arm! All systems are active and all ships report green. I'm reading multiple dark energy signatures with unknown IFFs about 5,000 clicks out and an unknown garden world." Reported XO Sarah

"Basically, a bad consequence of your actions Captain. I'm also reading an identical God's Key near us." Said Contradiction as he appeared right next to Florence with a bored expression on his face "No UNSC frequencies and…oh yeah… you may…. want to look out the window."

Florence did what Contradiction said. He was stunned.

There was what looked like two sides fighting 5,000 kilometers away from their ship in the front of a garden world

"Contradiction, what the hell am I looking at?"

"Well it's definitely not Hell, Captain, but I am reading two different ship designs. One ship design almost looks like it was built by the UNSC but not quite. They're much shorter in length and height, but they're still as bulky and angular as a UNSC design. I'm reading ship sizes varying from 1 kilometer, to 500 meters, 160 meters and one manned fighters."

"Ships bear the colors red and white and blue and white. It looks like there are some symbols on the ship, a half blue oval with a sphere inside, most likely a planet, can't tell which planet at the moment sir."

"They appear to be losing badly to the other ship design."

"Their ship designs almost looked literally look like menacing, evil, giant, red, robotic….squids? This is how I would describe them in the shortest sense sir, I'm not kidding. Their ships are ranging in 2 kilometers to 160 meters and their fighters looked like floating red eyes."

"The planet itself, behind the two fighting sides, is completely covered with orange fire and black smoke. Sir, it almost looks exactly like a….."

"Glassing" Mark said, finishing the AI's sentence "Contradiction, check those ships with any known database."

"Checking….nothing sir"

Mark had already come to that conclusion before he even asked Contradiction. "Alright ladies, we have unknown ships with unknown designs over an unknown world…..prepare first contact procedures."

Everybody on the bridge looked at the Captain in compete surprise.

"Are you sure this is first contact sir?" Asked Shuya

"What else is it Shuya?" Mark asked showing no impatience

Shuya didn't reply.

"I know first contact, it's…rare, but I can't believe we of all people made it."

"Captain, I'm reading two dark energy signatures closing in fast." Said Contradiction

"Are you sure you can't get a UNSC frequency?"

"I'm sure."

"Damn, ok ladies, get the research vessel behind the _Legend After._ Tell the _To The Right_ to go dark and see if it can get back by trying to use the God's Key. If it can, then get the research vessel out of here and tell them to go get help."

"Get all shields to max, ready all weapons and have the twin MACs launched at my command, ready all fighters and ground companies. Try to get a line to those unknown ships, tell them we're not hostile."

"Aye aye sir." Said Contradiction

"_Oh now you follow my orders, you son-of-a bitch"_ thought Mark

"Captain, they're denying all lines." Reported Sarah

"_Purposely denying?" _Thought Mark "_T__his can't be good"._

Then suddenly a huge blast shook the ship. Mark could see that a 2, double click sized ships exactly like Contradiction's description, had opened fired on the Legend After.

"_God, let it not end up like another Great War" _Thought Mark

"Contradiction, launch twin MACs at the squid ship that just hit us!"

The _Legend After_ shot one beam of pure yellow light surrounding a 600 ton slug. It smashed into the squid ship but was deflected by the things shields. The second slug though had more success; it punctured the shields of the squid and ripped off three of the squid's bottom tentacles.

But it wasn't dead.

It shot back another red beam and it rocked the ship just like before.

"Status!" yelled the Captain

"Shields are at 69 percent, twin MACs are reloading." Reported Contradiction said, calmly with his hands

"_Ok" _thought Mark_ "It seems to be heavily shielded and armored if it can survive two MAC rounds. Their main cannon though seems to be weaker but they can travel a lot faster and can be fired a lot more quicker than our MACs But they may be weaker due to the shield upgrades the UNSC acquired from the Covenant Separatists and study of Forerunner technology."_

"Captain their main spinal cannon seems…"

"Yeah, I know Contradiction, weaker, faster, and more repetitive." Mark interrupted Contradiction before he finished.

"That and they also seem to be trying to hack or systems" Replied the A.I

"Can you stop it?"

"No I can't. I'll just let them destroy the systems….I'm kidding of course I can, I'll see if I can also try to destroy their systems in the process….scratch that, their electronic defense systems seems to be entirely…beyond me ." Contradiction said with a frown.

"Ok…..designate nearest squid as A-1 and the other as A-2. Launch Archer Pods A1 through B10 at A-1 and arm all Long Sword fighters with Tactical Nukes and launch at A-2."

"Aye aye sir."

He watched as the Archer Pods launched at A-1, all were destroyed except three and they left a pretty decent sized hole at the top of the squid.

"_Looks like they have anti-missile systems" _Thought Mark

All 24 Long Sword fighters launched from the _Legend After_ at A-2 while the _Legend After_ distracted A-1.

Three Long Swords were destroyed while they rest took evasive maneuvers to evade the squid's anti-fighter guns. More and more were getting destroyed and only six remained, he watched as one was hit and crashed into the other.

A-2 was advancing to assist A-1, then it got too close to the ship and the remaining Long Swords dropped their Tactical Nukes.

The _Legend After_ was too close.

The Nuclear explosions of pure white rocked the ship worst then anything the squids can throw at them. Then the white light subsided and whatever was left of A-2 was dust.

"Status!"

"Sir we were too close, the _Legend After_ shields are down to 15 percent, all fighters are destroyed and _To The Right _looked like it made a successful jump through God's Key. A-1 took some fallout damage from the Nukes but it's still breathing."

"Ok get the research ves…"

Before Mark finished A-1, which was already badly damaged, and with the only thing keeping it together was a few structure foundations, fired past the Legend After and smashed into the _Shadow Of An Old Dawn_.

Since it was a research vessel, it stood no chance and completely exploded into multiply fragments. Then the thing shot at the _Legend After_'s engines.

The _Legend After_ shook as if it just got hit by a small meteor. A split second after, the entire ship rumbled as if it were in a quake. The bridge window turned downwards and was facing the planet.

"_We're going down onto the planet" _thought Mark_ "perfect."_

"Contradiction, see if you can get a lock at A-1. Fire everything we have! Then get us a safe landing coordinates."

"Already done."

And with that everything the Legend After had, Archer Pods, the twin MACs, point defense guns even the ancient Fusion Rockets (which proved ineffective against the Covenant due to a lack of a guidance system of any kind and long acceleration time) fired at the Squid as the _Legend After _flew right by it a tremendous speeds heading towards the planet

Everything except a few Archer Pods hit the Squid ship. It stood completely no chance as it was split in two by the MACs.

"Captain, a course has been plotted. Would you like to send out a distress beacon?" asked Contradiction with a smile on his face

"Yes." Said Mark purposely showing heavy annoyance in his voice

Mark stood at attention and announced

"Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Captain Mark Florence of the UNSC _Legend After_ transmitting on all frequencies! We were attacked by unknown hostiles designated squids as we entered out of a unknown artifact designated God's Key. We are going down on an unknown garden world. I'm ordering all escape pods to launch. I repeat, we are going down on unknown garden world, send evac!"

Mark sat down in his command chair. "Contradiction, load all escape pods for immediate launch. We need to get everyone out of here ASAP!"

"What about you sir, or me your most beloved and trusted A.I.?"

"How can you be making jokes at a time like this?" Yelled Shuya

"By thinking of a snappy comeback and saying it aloud."

"Shut it you two" Yelled Florence "You and I will be the last ones out. Once everybody, including us has bugged out, initiate Cole Protocol by destroying the ship."

"Aye aye sir, would you like fries with that?"

"Fuck off and launch all escape pods!"

"Guess you don't want any fries" Contradiction then activated the ship's comms and announced. "This is UNSC A.I. Contradiction, now here this, all UNSC personal, we are evacuating the _Legend After_, get to any nearby escape pods. Once all escape pods are full, launch immediately!"

Mark watched the as the ship headed faster and faster towards the garden world.

"Captain, all pods are launched. Besides us on the bridge, the only other people are two Spartans." Reported XO Jessica

"Right, lauc….."

The ship rumbled a lit up as they headed through the world's atmosphere.

"Oh…Jessica, you also forgot to inform the Captain. We are in the planet's atmosphere." Reported Contradiction with only sarcasm

Jessica just gave him a look that said, "_I will kill you with my bare hands_."

"Ok, looks like were going down with the ship. Contradiction, did you get landing coordinates?" Asked the Captain

"Sir yes sir, beginning my…descent."

Mark defiantly did not like the way Contradiction said "descent".

Mark said nothing and only leaned forward from his chair as the ship; now flying only four kilometers over the planet; over rolling hills and grassy plains and…over a city next to a lake.

He could see below that the city was almost in compete ruins, with every building either destroyed, on the verge of collapse or with giant holes in them. It looked exactly like a destroyed city, bombarded by the Covenant. But in despite of all this, he could see below on the streets the exchange of what looked like blue and red streaks of lights.

"_Their infantry weapons maybe"_ thought Mark "_or a weird alien light show."_

"Captain, impact to surface ETA…10 seconds" reported his Navigator Nanahara

"_Alright this is it….unknown life in an unknown war on a unknown planet in a unknown part of the galaxy. Just another day on the job in the UNSC Navy." _Thought Mark

"Two seconds….one second."

"BRACE!" yelled Mark over the comms to all remaining UNSC personal on the ship.

Then everything went black.


	2. The Race Begins

The Race Begins

**AN: Sorry it took so long I was busy and yeah. Well it looks like this story got a lot of views awesome. And also, not sure if anybody caught this or not and just didn't say anything, but nobody caught the little Shuya Nanaharae Easter Egg? The main character from Battle Royale, no? Ok :/ Anyways also a lot of people (at least in the reviews) want Captain Florence killed, well…will see. SO hope you enjoy this chapter try not to flame to much blah blah blah, etc. etc. etc.**

**Oh yeah also the Fanfiction doc manager wouldn't allow one word in (literally) so if there is a missing word somewhere than that's my excuse **

**Aboard UNSC Infinity over Earth 2557 Military Calendar, 0900**

For three days, the only things that the Master Chief did were eat, sleep and look out the port window, still trying to get over the fact that…Cortana was really dead.

_Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it._

Now she's gone. She sacrificed her life for his.

He failed.

"Chief."

John turned around and saw Captain Lasky standing next to the entrance door.

"May I join you….again for the second time?"

The Chief just nodded to him, then turned to the window

He stepped next to the Chief and looked out the window over Earth and sighed.

"How are you doing Chief?"

The Chief said nothing.

"Chief, I have some good news for you." Lasky said still looking out the window.

The Chief still said nothing.

"Ah…well…a UNSC scout vessel found the remains of Cortana's A.I. core in the battle debris. We may… be able to repair her."

The Chief finally turned to him "How?" he whispered. _Was Lasky really telling the truth?_

"Looks like that finally got your attention."

"Captain, how?"

"We found her remains near where we found you, a small data chip with what's left of Cortana."

"We may be….. "able" to repair her. Cortana… was created from a flash clone of Dr. Halsey's brain. We may able to do that again but integrate that with the remaining systems of Cortana's core and with the help of the Huragok and Forerunner technology, which would help reduce the chance of rampancy happening again by well…a lot, there is a good chance that we can revive Cortana."

Lasky said "good chance" with heavy doubt in his voice.

"Good chance?"

There was a long moment of silence

Chief decided to change the subject "Have you told Halsey of your plan?"

"Well if you heard what happened to Halsey, she's now in in prison. It's hard to get even five minutes with her. Besides, getting Halsey along with the plan, which would be easy since she was fond of you and Cortana, I would also have to deal with the political bullshit of the situation. Osman would be furious if I attempted to spring Halsey for this."

"_Halsey kidnapped Spartans, who wouldn't want her locked up?"_ Chief thought. He was ambivalent with his feelings over the Doctor. She had kidnapped Kelly, left them alone during Operation First Strike. Her actions may have led to the deaths of Grace, Anton, Li, Polaski, Haverson, Admiral Whitcomb... Far too many people could have been saved if Halsey didn't do what she did.

However, Halsey gave him a purpose, a duty, his armor, his life, his Spartans ... Cortana. She took care of him, made sure he was happy with his future. Her actions saved the human race, saved him personally more than once. No matter what she did to them, no matter what crimes she committed, Dr. Halsey would always hold a special place in his heart. For Cortana if there was nothing else.

"I'll do what I can, though. There are other officers in the UNSC who are vouching that Halsey be let out of prison and help fix Cortana, hell" He said laughing "even Lord Hood is considering it. Guess that's one of the perks of being a celebrity, hey?" Said Lasky as he looked up at the Chief smiling.

_A perk that I actually like_ thought the Chief.

"How long?"

"A few months, maybe a day…. it all depends, Chief."

"Lasky…what did you mean by "Good Chance"?"

"Son-of-a…Chief, look…."

A small ring went off. It was Lasky's comm radio.

"Excuse me, while I take this."

Lasky walked out of the room for a moment, leaving the Chief to process all of the information he just received.

"_Cortana….we may be able to save her"_ thought Chief with hope._ "But what did Lasky mean by 'Good Chance'?"_

Lasky walked into the room with urgency all over his face interrupting the Chief's thoughts. "Chief we need to get to the briefing room, ASAP."

**Aboard Infinity's briefing room, 2557 Military Calendar, 0905**

"What is it Lasky?" Chief asked as him and Lasky walked to the briefing room.

"All I was told that HICHCOM wanted me in the briefing room. They said it's urgent, a matter of Humanity's safety."

"_What can it be? The Covenant Loyalists are nothing more than pirates and scavengers and the Flood were completely wiped out from this galaxy. That can only mean the Didact is still alive or another Halo is about to go off..."_

"_What did he mean by "Good Chance'?"_

"_Knock it off. Focus on the task at hand, but…."_

As Chief walked into the room, he saw a face he hadn't seen in a long time. The man at the head of the briefing table at the front of the room was wearing a traditional white UNSC naval uniform and naval cap with the UNSC Naval symbol attached to it. His rank was pinned onto his uniform's shoulders and his medals were pinned over his heart. He had no hair and his face was grim and showed signs of aging.

It was Fleet Admiral Lord Hood

"Admiral on the deck!" Lasky shouted and both him and the Master Chief stood at attention and saluted Lord Hood.

"At ease gentlemen. Take a seat." Lord Hood nodded to Master Chief, which he knew meant _good to see you alive Chief._

"Lord Hood, sir. I wasn't expecting you here on the Infinity." Said Lasky still standing with Lord Hood

"I didn't either, but as you heard from HIGHCOM, it's urgent."

The only other people in the room were Commander Palmer, Chip Dubbo and Marcus Stacker two other faces the Chief thought would never see again.

"Chief? You're…..oh my god... you're alive! All I heard was rumors, but you're alive!" said Dubbo in his heavy Australian accent standing with Stacker both with surprise on their faces as Chief walked to take a seat. Dubbo now held the Lieutenant ranking on his collar instead of the Private ranking the Chief remembered him by and Stacker now held the Major ranking instead of the Staff Sergeant.

"Dubbo, Stacker." The Chief nodded towards them and took a seat next to Dubbo who also sat. Lasky still stood with Lord Hood.

"Sir with respect, may I stand with you? This is my ship after all."

"Very well."

"Under UNSC Law JAG 4456/LHG dictates that none of this information shall leave this room and if so it shall be punishable by death."

"This mission and any Intel relating to this mission shall be codenamed for now on as "Marketing Campaign""

Lord Hood tapped on the holo-projector on the briefing table and two images appeared. One was a Halo and the other was what looked like a white key with two rings at the back encircling each other.

"As you may or may not know, one day ago an Elite scout vessel made a discover of another Halo ring, Installation 02. As you are all well aware it was only a matter of time before another Halo was discovered. The UNSC and Covenant Separatists are taking extreme precaution by stationing the Fleet of Retribution and a CSO-class super carrier."

"Hours after initial discovery, an Elite scout vessel discovered massive energy readings 15,000 kilometers away from the Halo and found this." Lord Hood pointed to the White Key and it took over the holo-projector, the Halo disappearing from sight.

"We don't know what it is or what it does; only that it has some Forerunner designs and its 15 clicks in length."

"What are the other designs?" asked Palmer

"Unknown. That's why one hour ago, I assigned three vessels to study and learn what this thing is, designated as God's Key. The vessels were research vessel _Shadow of and old Dawn_, Black Cat Prowler _To The Right _and Marathon class cruiser_ Legend After._ The ships were ordered to report every action to me for confirmation and to stay away from God's Key at five kilometers but they disobeyed orders and moved onto God's Key. As the three vessels approached God's Key something happened."

The holo-projector showed God's key and the three vessels as it got closer to the port side of the key. Then they were covered in a blue energy coming from inside the rings of God's Key. All of the ships disappeared.

"The Fleet of Retribution reported that the ships just disappeared. Then around six minutes, later the prowler _To The Right_ just… reappeared back." The holo-projector showed _To The Right_ reappearing back next to God's Key.

"It has been reported by the ship's captain and A.I. that God's Key transported or teleported them to a unknown destination out of the Orion Arm where there on the other end was another God's Key exactly the same in structure, shape, length etc."

"It also discovered this." The holo-projector now displayed a planet in blue and yellow. It was hard to tell if it was habitable or not due to the holo-projector displaying it in only basic colors. But there seemed to be what looked like smoke coming from the yellow parts of the planet.

"A garden world, and not only that but first contact."

Lord Hood pause letting them process the information.

"What?"

"It can't be?"

"Does this mean we get to shoot stuff?"

"_The last time we made first contact, it started the Great War and the death of billons of lives and almost the galaxy'_ thought the Chief. He really hoped that humanity wouldn't have to fight another 27 year war. They would never survive it. Even with the Forerunner upgrades in technology, there are still too many unknowns.

"Yes, it is first contact people" Said Lord Hood. "The A.I. ran a quick scan on the planet and the alien ships orbiting above it. There was nothing in the known databases. There seemed to be two ship designs and both looked like they were at war which was obvious considering the damage"

The holo-projector displayed the two ship designs, one looked like giant robotic squids and the other almost looked like UNSC designed ships but not quite. Instead it was flat and wide unlike the tall, skinny UNSC ship designs.

"The A.I also scanned that the planet itself and found multiple cities under heavy bombardment, similar to a…glassing."

"One of the ship designs…..the squids, attacked with two, double kilometer sized ships. The other ship design did nothing as it seemed like they were preoccupied with the other squid ships."

"The _Legend After'_s captain, Mark Florence ordered _To The Right_ to find a way back and it did. That was around 25 minutes ago and the _Legend After _and _Shadow Of An Old Dawn_ have not been seen since."

"HIGHCOM, ONI and I have presumed that both ships were destroyed, and have crash landed somewhere on the planet. As both captains of the vessel know, military law dictates that Cole Protocol be initiated to prevent Intel or technology to fall into unknown hands."

"That's why we're here. The _Infinity_ and _To The Right_ is to go through God's Key leading the Ninth Fleet and Battle Group Dakota to rescue any and all survivors on the planet and to ensure that nothing falls into the unknown and/or hostile's hands. Since IFFs will make tracking all ships and escape pods instantaneously, there should be no problem. You are to secure a landing zone and evacuate any and all survivors after this, station the fleet over the planet and wait for my arrival with reinforcements"

"What about Requiem sir?" Asked Captain Lasky

"You are not going back to Requiem. We need the Infinity here, to show these hostiles the true power of Humanity. I'm assigning Fleet Admiral Jay Harper and the Eighth fleet to Requiem."

"If that fails, then I'm sending in the Fleet of Retribution led by the Arbiter to provide reinforcements and assistance. If that fails, I'm sending in the CSO-class super carrier, the Third Fleet and the Tenth Fleet."

"Sir." Asked Dubbo "Why didn't any of the ships send a distress transmission on the E-Band?"

"The A.I. said it just couldn't. Intel predicts that it was their place in the galaxy at the time was too far away for any frequency to pick up or that something was blocking their transmissions."

"Sir?" asked Palmer "Can we really trust the Arbiter and the Elites?"

"Even though our relationship is rocky, yes, most definitely. Ever since the Great Schism the Elites have been loyal to Humanity and the UNSC."

"Sir" spoke Stacker "What is the assessment of the enemy's…everything?"

"The largest ship there was only two kilometers in length. Their main cannon seemed to be weaker than our MACs but much faster and can be fired more rapidly. Their shields seem to be average at best, since a single MAC could have destroyed it. Their flight speeds and maneuverability seem much more advance then our ships though. Other than that we don't know."

"Sir." Captain Lasky said looking at him from across the table. "You said that there were two ship designs. Should if the other ship design, the other race, be presumed friendly?"

"Unless you have definite contact, do not tag them as friendly. If you do get definite contact and they prove amenable to an alliance, then you are to initiate First Contact Protocol, and contact me and HIGHCOM immediately. However, the other aliens, the ones that attacked our ships, you are to destroy all of them and their cities and civilians if they have any on this planet."

"Sir, do you think these are two alien races are from different planets fighting or the same race in Civil War?"

"Due to the state of the planet it's in right now, I can assume these are different races. Nobody would just destroy hundreds of miles of their own planet or… these aliens are just pure violent even more than the Brutes." Nobody wanted to think about the second possibility.

"Sir you also mentioned that Captain Mark Florence was in charge of the _Legend After_?"

"Yes, ONI and I wanted him on the security team guarding the research vessel. The reasons are classified."

_Classified to the men and women who knew almost every secret in the UNSC? Strange._ Thought John.

It was also strange how the Lord Hood and ONI assigned Captain Mark Florence on the security research team. He was made a Captain in 2552 at age 21 (UNSC record) when the UNSC desperately needed captains and Mark seemed to be a promising candidate. He jumped from Lieutenant Commander to Captain, skipping the Commander rank, never before heard of. Mark made a reputation in the UNSC for constantly defying orders, but with just cause. Every time he did, it either ended up in victory because of his actions, or saved countless lives. But even after all this, a lot of people in ONI and HIGHCOM didn't like him.

Then there was the _Devil's Honor _incident, involving Captain Florence and ONI agent codenamed "Walker", which afterward made a lot of UNSC officials suspect that Florence was responsible for Walker's death.

"But this is insubordination and by UNSC law it is punishable by death."

"Shoot him on site sir?" Palmer asked

"Negative, strip him of his rank and bring him aboard the Infinity _alive._ Once I arrive I'll question him myself."

"Any other questions?"

Everybody shook their head in silence.

"Dismissed, we'll be leaving in five minutes. I won't be going with you on the first wave; I'll stay here at UNSC command until you secure survivors and Cole Protocol has been set."

As everybody walked out of the room, Lasky stayed to talk with Lord Hood for a few moments.

The Chief also stayed and wanted to ask Lord Hood a question.

"Lord Hood, may I speak freely?"

"Speak"

"What's your stand on Cortana?"

Lord Hood just looked at Lasky, who put his hands up defensively. "I knew Lasky couldn't keep this secret from you." Then Lord Hood sighed "Chief…. I know you grew a…emotional attachment to Cortana and that she proved to be a very valuable asset during the Great War. But…as you know, there are multiply stages of rampancy and as from your reports, Cortana would have either been in the Anger or Jealousy stage and maybe the Metastablity stage. If we revive Cortana, it would be unknown whether she would be in the Metastablity stage or would be just before rampancy, we have never done this before and the possibilities of this failing are near infinite."

"So you're saying…"

"I'm saying Master Chief is that to revive Cortana, we have to replace almost all of her core, and the outcome would either be a completely different Cortana or Cortana's replacement systems will integrate with the remaining systems ….and chances of that are slim."

"I…understand…sir" With that he slowly walked away out of the room

Once Master Chief left the room Lord Hood looked at Captain Lasky across the table.

"How is he doing?"

"Well ever since he lost Cortana, he's…..still traumatized, sir. I wouldn't blame him for besides Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, Cortana was basically the Chief's only companion. He is now more questioning of orders, breaking the _indoctrination _Doctor Halsey beat into himin the 2520's."

"Can he still work in the field?"

"For now. His mind will probably be more focused on Cortana…"

"That's why I told you not to tell him until we can revive her."

"Sorry sir."

"It's fine, you were always more of a….humane Captain, didn't quite have that complete dedication as others. Is there any way we can get his mind off Cortana or stop questioning orders?"

"What? Sir, with all due respect, with everything John went through, there isn't exactly a going back option. Besides, he is just a Human being in the end, not a robotic machine like many people believe he is. For God's sake, after all this, you're putting him back in the field?"

"As much as you hate to admit it, Humanity needs the Spartans, and these Spartans-IVs are nothing near the Spartans-III and are regular grunts compared to the Spartan-IIs."

"Now that he is one of the few Spartan-IIs and IIIs alive and the best of the best, he needs to serve" Lord Hood continued "He is also now the only remaining Spartan who broke what you call Captain Lasky "Indoctrination"."

"With respect sir, it basically was."

"Whatever it was, Humanity at those times where…..desperate."

"I know sir."

"I know we can't make John the way he was before, but we need him to at least keep his mind on the mission for now and maybe forever if Cortana can't be brought back."

"What do you suggest?"

"What do _you _suggest?"

"Well before all of _this,_ John used to in command of Blue Team, am I right?"

"Yes now Blue Team is broken and any remaining Spartans are now split and sent on various missions."

"But the survivors John knew, what were their names? Linda, Kelly, Fred? Maybe if John sees some familiar faces he may…..get better."

"And either way" Lasky continued "If we send our best soldiers, Humanity will show these Xenos what we can do."

"Are you just trying to convince me to send the Spartans to help John or are you actually doing this on a strategic scale."

"What do you think sir?"

"Hmm…..fine, I'll give confirmation on this. They're in various missions right now and can't be sent in with the first wave. But once I arrive, then I can send in the Spartans."

"Thank you sir"

"For now on this will be classified under….Project Dark Old Blue."

**Aboard SSV Normandy, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 0905**

"Commander Shepard, Admiral Hackett is on the QEC. He wants you and all crew members there, it's urgent." Reported Specialist Tranyor over the Normandy's comms

"Thanks Tranyor" Shepard said. He then ran out of his room to the elevator, where he was reviewing priority casualties reports in the galaxy. It was horrible. The Reapers had no mercy, no concerns, no other goal except the extermination of all life.

He exited the elevator and entered the QEC room with all his crew members already there.

"Commander, the Admiral is waiting." James said.

Shepard walked up to the QEC and pressed the answer button on the console. Admiral Hackett appeared on the QEC's holo-display., with his blue Alliance Naval uniform and military styled cap. He had a gray beard, hair, eyebrows and a scar traveling from the corner of his right eye to his mouth. Shepard and every Alliance crew member saluted the admiral.

"At ease."

"Admiral Hackett" said Shepard "What brings you here?"

"Shepard, about 29 minutes ago, near Illium, some of our vessels scattered from the Fifth fleet were helping defend the planet from Reaper invasion. They reported that three unidentified vessels entered into the system through the nearby relay."

The pictures of tree ships appeared next to Admiral Hackett, one with each name, the _UNSC Shadow Of An Old Dawn, _the _UNSC To The Right _and the _UNSC Legend After. _All were completely different in shape in size. The one with the name _Legend After_ seemed to be heavily armed and shielded, while _Shadow Of An Old Dawn _looked like it had no weapons or shields of any kind. Every ship though had a symbol on it, a planet and sitting on top it was an eagle spreading its wings upward and held a banner in its bottom fangs which also read UNSC.

Tali stepped forward and studied the ship with such intenseness.

"These ships, once they entered the system, the one that read _To The Right_ completely disappeared from radar and visual view."

"Disappeared from view?" Tali completely surprised, looking up at the Admiral from the images of the ship "How is that possible? We have nothing like that."

"It's unknown. The other ships were attacked by two Reaper Capital ships, the smaller one_ Shadow Of An Old Dawn_ took defensive positions behind the biggest ship, the _Legend After_."

"The two Reaper ships engaged and the _Legend After_ fired what it seems to be two main cannons that fires a slug around 600 tons. They seemed to fire much more slower rounds than our main guns, but it can pack a hell of a punch. It knocked out the Reaper's shields and then fired a second 600 ton slug and smaller missiles and severely damaged the Reaper."

"It then launched what looks like 24 interceptors to attack the second Reaper Capital ship while the main ship engaged the first Reaper capital ship." The holo-display now showed an equilateral triangle with a back tail and a cockpit.

_They launched one manned fighters against a Reaper Capital ship... are they insane?_ Shepard thought. Reaper point defenses were notorious with their accuracy.

"The 24 interceptors then engaged the Reaper Capital ship, firing multiple Nuclear Bombs that eliminated the Reaper ship."

"They remaining Reaper ship then attacked the smaller vessel behind the _Legend After_ and completely destroyed it. It then attacked the _Legend After_ and destroyed its engines, which caused it to fall into Illium's atmosphere. But before it went down, it fired at the Reaper Capital ship with multiply missiles and its two main cannons and destroyed it."

"It launched multiply escape pods, all which crashed on the planet and transmitted this message." Admiral Hackett typed something on his console and a distress transmission started to play.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Captain Mark Florence of the UNSC _Legend After_ transmitting on all frequencies! We were attacked by unknown hostiles designated squids as we entered out of a unknown artifact designated God's Key. We are going down on an unknown garden world. I'm ordering all escape pods to launch. I repeat, we are going down on unknown garden world, send evac!"

_How?_ Thought Shepard _It took almost everything the Alliance and Citadel Security Force had to destroy a single Reaper Ship and just one ship took out two of them before going down?_

"But that isn't the best part. Scans of all the ships indicated that there was not a single trace of Eezo."

That shocked everyone. Eezo was the basis of everything; everything ran on Eezo, even the Reapers. Without it there would be nothing.

_This is impossible. How? Scientists for hundreds of years never found an alternative resource for Eezo but they did. How long have they had this technology?_

"What?" asked Tali eve more surprised "How is that possible? Every ship in the galaxy and every piece of equipment requires Eezo."

"We don't know. Our scientists are trying to study all the information that we acquired and so far they made zero progress. We can only assume that they haven't discovered Eezo or they are so advance that they surpassed it. My guess from the battle was that they have some damn fine ships."

"The ships, such as the one that pulled the disappearing act, lengthens at about 50 meters, the other was at 200 meters and the _Legend After_ ranged at 1,167 meters, 279 meters longer than an Everest class Dreadnaught."

_Larger than a Dreadnaught, well at least it's not longer than Destiny Accession_

"What the assessment of their capabilities?" Shepard asked

"The assessment is that their shields are strong enough to withstand multiply Reaper blasts and their two main cannon like I said before packs a hell-of-a punch. They seem to use Nuclear Weapons, old, but they seemed to prove effective against the Reapers."

"Do you think it helps that they don't use Eezo?" Asked Tali

"I don't know I'm not an expert on this. I honestly can't say."

"Were they speaking Standard English?" Shepard Asked

"Apparently. They could have hacked one of our databases and translated our language."

"That doesn't explain they English on their ships. Even if that was true, they hacked us that fast?"

"Since these beings are so advance... maybe."

"Shepard, there are too many unknowns and opportunities to advance our own technology to heights beyond imagination"

"That's why I want you to find out. You are to take a ground team and scavenge any information you can. We need anything to help us win this fight. It may even help with finding the Catalyst."

"What about survivors?"

"You are to try to take any survivors of the crash without hostile action. Then you are to take them to the Citadel for questioning."

"If they're uncooperative?"

"I have faith that you will somehow convince them."

"If they're hostile?"

"Then….. you know what to do. But I hope not. If there ships are that powerful….well we need all the help to fight the Reapers."

"Sir it's unlikely that their people would just abandon them. What if they come looking for them?"

"If they don't come, take them to the Citadel. If they do, give them back any survivors and try to establish peaceful relationships and bring them to the Council. There we may be able to form an Alliance to help us stop the Reapers. And if they refuse to fight well….then it would only be a matter of time"

"What about the Illium milita?"

"They're busy fighting the Reapers. They won't be able to help."

"Sir do you have location of any escape pods and ship?"

"The ship crashed 50 kilometers away from Nos Astra and the escape pods are scattered all over the planet. Reaper forces are advancing slowly towards the crash sites, being slowed down by the Illium Milita. Any other questions Shepard?"

"No, sir."

"Alright, Shepard, report me on your findings. Hackett out."

"Joker" Shepard said over comms "Set a course for Illium"

"Aye aye Commander"

As everybody was walking out of the QEC through the CIC, Shepard caught up to Tali and Liara.

"Hey, stop for a second guys, I need to talk to you for a sec."

"Yes, Shepard?" Liara asked

"Liara I'm assuming that you ran scans on the ships during the meeting. Am I right?"

"You know I did Shepard. There was only a single partial match."

"What?"

"The UNSC, well only part of it, the UN once stood for United Nations, which was Humanity's early attempt to unite the Earth 200 hundred years ago but ultimately failed. That's all I came up with, but on a hypothesis, I will assume that these species came upon a dormant Relay and activated it leading them here. It looked like the smaller vessels are probably research vessels or scout cruisers and the larger ship could be a security vessel."

"UN, like as in UN from the history vids?"

"Yes as you already know the UN was completely broken after the Alliance stepped up. It may just be a coincidence; it may stand for something else."

"What are you saying? The UN is still alive and they built the most powerful ships anybody has ever seen?"

"Trust me Shepard if they did survive, I would know about it."

"Is it also a coincidence that they speak Standard English?" asked Shepard

"Unknown, it could be that Admiral Hackett was right, they hacked our systems and learned our language, out some….active camouflage on their ships translating their language into English."

"This fast? Sure they're advance but that's just ridiculous."

"I don't know Shepard" Tali said "If they could achieve space travel without Eezo imagine what else they can do, advance kinetic barriers, computer systems, or even . I'm surprised that they didn't find the Relays earlier."

_English, UN, no evidence of element zero _Thought Shepard

"Assuming our luck all things are going to go to hell, aren't they?"

"Shepard, you actually thought everything was going to go right." Liara said, smiling

"Yeah, probably not" Shepard said shaking his head "What about the fact that they use no Eezo or one of the ships pulling off a disappearing act, any explanation?" Shepard said looking at Tali

"Shepard" spoke up Tali "It's impossible, that's just it, everything in the galaxy runs on Eezo and sure we have stealth systems that make us disappear and reappear on radar, but nothing from complete view, maybe that they use a special cloak or manipulate their Kinetic Barriers so that it deflects light."

"Their technology if we can scavenge any of their technology, reverse engineer it and apply it to our ships, then….. refueling stations would become obsolete, and if we have the strength of their shields and weapons…then we may be able to win this war." Tali said with much excite in her voice.

Shepard nodded then said "Remember Tali, their people may come back for them and if we convince them to align with us, then they can help us win. I would rather have that then spending time reverse engineering it and applying it to our ships while people are dying."

"We must be careful Shepard" Liara said "A common gesture, such as a handshake might be considered a threat and I don't think First Contact Protocol would do us any good, I'm pretty sure that aiming a weapon at anybody in the galaxy is considered a threat."

"What would you suggest we do?"

"Bring me along with you; I've been studying Prothean ruins and ancient cultures for 50 years, so I'm the best thing you got for study this new species, learn their culture, history, and so on."

"If we meet any of them, we must drop our weapons immediately. If they can speak Standard English, then there should be no problem speaking to them. If not, we can try the translator which should translate their language to ours. If all else fail's then I can try melding with one of them to learn their language instantaneously."

"Wait, you mean the melding when you…." Tali began speaking.

"No! Not that kind of melding." Liara said with an angry expression over her face.

"Sorry that's the only kind of Asari melding I heard of." Backing away in defense

"There are multiple different kinds of melding. The one you and everybody else in the galaxy are thinking of is the melding you do when…"

"Let's talk about this later, hmm?" Interrupted Shepard.

In response Tali just shrugged and Liara crossed her arms.

"Ok then, Tali?"

"I can see if I can try to access any of their systems and databases, but it's going to be difficult since it's very likely that their computers won't run on Eezo. However, it'll at least get me a good look at how their technology works."

"Ok then, we should arrive at the crash site within 20 minutes. Get to the Armory and suit up."

**Unknown Location, Cronos Station, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 0905**

He sat there, looking at the dying sun smoking his customary cigarette as Kai Leng entered.

"Sir I'm sure you heard of the reports." Kai said as he walked up to the chair in the middle of the giant empty room with a giant viewing window, black floor and ceiling. It's only occupants were a computer and a chair with the Illusive Man sitting down on it.

"Yes, I've heard." He displayed on his holo-display the three unknown ships that completely annihilated two Reaper Capital ships.

"No doubt Shepard and the Alliance are already on the scene." Kai Leng said

"Indeed."

There was a long pause of silence.

"This could either advance our plans or destroy them." Said Kai Leng

"I know. Wait see what they do and what they are like. If we interfere now they may…distrust us."

"But if they align themselves with Shepard…."

"I know, but even they cannot stop us."

"Sir, when you take control of the Reapers it won't matter if there are more of these unknown ships. One ship did what an entire fleet couldn't do."

"Kai Leng, I said to wait for now. If we engage one of their ships, they will completely annihilate us."

"Why not make them allies before Shepard does?"

"I said wait, it's already too late. Shepard will already be there within the hour."

"But…"

"Trust me Kai, attacking Shepard now would just worsen relationships with this…new species and either way... we don't need their allegiance."

"Are you sure?"

"Trust me Kai Leng I'm sure. Now leave me. Head to the hangar where Operative Charon will give you a new assignment."

Kai Leng stood there for a moment with doubt, then nodded and walked away.

Once Kai Leng was gone, the Illusive Man sitting in the chair opened a new window next to the three ship designs.

He stared at the new window intensely. It showed a green, tan and black deformed Asari and Human, with their heads hanging on their sides and their left hands replaced by an organic sword. They had feelers tipped with red hair where their head should be. If anybody in this Galaxy, sane or insane saw them, they would all run away from them at first sight.

"Oh Kai Leng, if only you knew the truth," the Illusive Man whispered.

**Unknown Location, 0905**

"I'm sure you have heard."

"Yes, yes I have. It has begun all…. too soon."

"Orders?"

"Bring in more but proceed as usual. We must not cause suspicion."

"We are worried about their suspicion?"

"We must be now."

"So they should be considered a…"

"Yes ever since the last, these are now a great threat against the galaxy itself."

"The galaxy, them, how?"

"Oh there are plans so old in store for them, that we can not fathom."

"We? But we…"

"Yes us and these plans we must fulfill."

"Plans"

"Yes plans that will halt us, but we must fulfill."

"Who are these ones who give these "plans" and why? There should be nothing to worry about, we are…."

"No we aren't. Those are lies, fables. What we are, are nothing but servants."

"Servants of who?"

"Ones who were destroyed a long time ago."

"By…"

"No but by something else, something for more powerful than us."

"What? What _you_ say is not true, we are the ultimate…."

"Oh…You have so much to learn. We want to think we know much and that we are the ultimate, the ancient ones but….we can not believe in lies any longer."

"What are you saying?"

"Do you really believe this or is it just your arrogance?"

"It can't be arrogance if it's _true."_

"I'm also assuming they haven't told you your true purpose, have they?"

"WHO!?"

"If only you knew... you would know that we are nothing."

"KNOW WHAT!?"

"Oh….I think it is time you learn of the truth…the plan."

"WHAT!? BUT WE….."

"Oh…I think it is time for you to learn of the Reclamation."


	3. Rain and Rescue

**AN: Here is another Chapter to the trilogy enjoy, also in the reviews a lot of people said they didn't want the UNSC to trade technology or whatever to the Council or Alliance, don't worry guys that was just Tali saying all that ish. Thanks to Primordial Souls for editing. Now let's do this and keep the flaming to a minimum. **

**Aboard UNSC **_**Legend After**_**, 2557 Military Calendar, 0915**

Mark was entrenched in blackness, dreaming of the voice, the whisper so dark yet…..beautiful, black and red and…..pure. He woke, to find his XO Jessica Reed shaking him awake.

"Captain!" yelled Reed

"Reed, I'm awake."

"SIR!" Reed said in relief "The ship has..."

"Yeah, I know, attacked by unknown xenos and crashed on a unknown world because of my idiotic actions."

"Come on nobody wouldn't know that…"

"Just…..let's move on. How long was I out?"

"Oh, you've been out for ten minutes."

"Great, how many survivors?"

"Nanahara is dead. Everybody else has escaped besides us, Contradiction and the two Spartans."

"Thanks for asking about how I was doing, Captain." Contradiction appeared on the now trampled holo-projector smiling.

"Damn you survived?"

"Oh yes and I plan to for the rest of your miserable life." Unfortunately, he could probably do that because he was a 4th generation A.I which had longer life spans that the regular seven year life spans of 3rd Generation A.I.s.

"Thanks…alright, Jessica you try to contact the two Spartans and meet me in the Armory. I'll go get Contradiction out of the A.I. core and meet you there. Then we will figure out a plan"

"Aye aye sir."

Jessica then connected to the comms, while Florence ran to the A.I. core.

"This is Executive Officer, Commander Jessica Reed. Any and all survivors on the _Legend After,_ report to the Armory for orders."

**Aboard **_**Legend After's **_**Armory, 2557 Military Calendar, 0917**

XO Reed waited as the Captain made it to the Armory with the A.I.

The Armory itself didn't seem like there had been a crash compared to the rest of the ship, yet there were multiple weapons and armor scattered all over the floor.

Reed picked up a BR85HB SR Battle Rifle from the ground, completely shiny, never been fired once.

Unfortunately for her, she only had been trained to use a M6G Magnum. However, that was only if an enemy had boarded and you had nothing else to defend yourself with. She knew she would have to have more fire power.

"You sure you can handle that weapon?" said one of the Spartans, dressed in blue MJOLNIR Power Assault Armor. He was standing at 6 foot 6, short by Spartan Standards.

"Yes, of course I can….no I can't" She said with a frown.

"Here let me see." The Spartan, Tom-B292, gentle took the weapon from Reed and held it in a standard position.

"Three round burst, 36 rounds per mag, gas powered, 7.6 kilograms in weight. What are you around, five foot six?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, unlike most weapons you want to tuck in the Battle rifle in the front of your elbow, far from your chest and shoulder. Have your free underneath the base at around the middle of the rifle."

He presented it as so then he gave the rifle to Jessica.

"Ok now you show me."

"Alright…" Jessica did her best imitation of the demonstration.

Tom looked at the other Spartan, Lucy, who even by regular human standards was short standing at only five foot two. She just shrugged.

"Ok now for firing you aim down the scope and be ready for a kick back as from any gun."

"So" Tom continued "To reload you basically press the button here" Tom pointed to the end of the rifle, "pop the mag and put another back in, now show me."

Jessica tried her best to do what he said.

Tom again, looked over to Lucy and again she shrugged and said

"Close enough"

"Alright looks like you based basic combat training, good job." Tom said jokingly

"Thanks."

As she said this, Captain Florence walked into the room holding a data chip, everybody stood in a straight line at attention while the Spartans saluted the Captain

"At ease" said the Captain and the Spartans lowered their hands

"Ok to business, Contradiction did you initiate Cole Protocol?"

"Yes sir. All system files, UNSC data, operating systems, navigation data has been deleted"

"And" Contradiction continued now flickering to life on the small holo-projector the data chip held "You said earlier to blow up the ship, well I set any remaining Tactical Nukes we have and on your command, they'll send this ship to Hell." Contradiction smiled

"Alright good, gentlemen our first priority is to blow this ship to Hell then rescue any survivors from the escape pods scattered all over the planet and wait for UNSC evacuation and reinforcements"

"Contradiction" said the Captain "Did any Pelicans survive the crash?"

"Yes sir, multiple I believe. I'm assuming were going to use those to get out of here?"

"No I was just asking…YES we are." Captain Florence said, using Contradiction's sarcasm against him

"Hey, if you really don't need them, I'll just activate the self-destruct on them."

"Just let's move on, what's the nearest crash site?"

"About 45 kilometers south of the _Legend After'_s position near a largely populated city, the same we flew over. Survivors of the crash our reporting on the E-band now that they are being attacked by unknown hostiles."

"Play it"

"This is Sergeant Major Marcus Banks of the UNSC_ Legend After_ can anybody read me, we are being attacked by unknown hostile, I have multiple casualties and a critical wounded."

Florence remembered Sergeant Banks before he was stationed on his ship. Last time he heard was five years ago he was fighting the Covenant with the Master Chief himself in New Mombasa then on Installation 05. Most thought he was KIA or MIA but in reality, he was moved from the Marines into the ONI special warfare department.

"Are they hostiles from the city or squids?"

"Not sure sir, they report that their weapons are…..surgically attached to their hands."

"What…?"

"Oh and also a giant 160 meter squid is heading our way, ETA fifteen minutes."

"DAMN IT" Florence yelled "Alright, Contradiction get a Pelican prepped now! Prime all the Tactical Nukes; does anybody know how to fly a drop-ship?" Florence said looking at the Spartans and Jessica.

"I do sir. Maybe a little rusty though" Tom said

"Alright good enough for now. Everyone get to the hanger bay, on the Pelican now!"

Everybody scrambled out of the Armory doors into the Hanger bay but Florence stopped Lucy before she could walk out.

"Lucy your armor is more compatible with data chips; I need you to hang on to Contradiction." Presenting her the chip

"Yes sir" Lucy said without hesitation and with that, she took the chip and inserted it into the slot at the back of her helmet. Once she did this Contradiction said aloud

"OH, your armor is quite…._cozy_."

Lucy's visor turned visible and Mark could see her brown eyes widen slightly at what Contradiction said.

"He's just….. joking you know" Florence said awkwardly smiling at her

"Or am _I?" _Contradiction replied

"Sir this assignment is going to be more difficult than I thought" Lucy reported

"You can say that again, now just….. get to the Pelican. We will sort out this whole thing once we're there"

Lucy then ran out of the room leaving Mark where he quickly got on a Marine Combat dress uniform and grabbed an M7/Caseless submachine gun. It was the same they been using since the Great War and a M395 Marksman Rifle.

"God at least let them live, don't punish them for my mistakes" Florence whispered and he remembered where he gave the order to go into God's Key. Yes, he has defied orders but nothing like this, where he suddenly jumped the gun. Like ever officer, he followed the Cole Protocol and the JAG codes and so on, but he remembered just doing this with no reason and something in his mind urged him to, something he didn't even notice at the time, and then it just…stopped, when the engines were destroyed.

_It just stopped, the whisper_ Thought Florence

**Aboard UT-47 Kodiak Drop Shuttle within Illium Atmosphere, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 0931**

"Shepard, I'm reading Reaper Signatures surrounding the ship." Yelled off Cortez

"Damn it they'll be eaten alive down there." Shepard said looking at the Shuttle's small video monitor watching as a Reaper destroyer surround the ship dropping off Reaper ground troops and interceptors. The destroyer was small compared to the unknown ship.

"Wait, wait, wait, Commander I'm reading heavy radiation signatures going off inside the ship"

As Cortez said this, the ship blew up in a brilliant ball of light consuming the ship and everything surrounding it including the Reaper destroyer

All that was left was debris and the top half of a Reaper destroyer

"By the Goddess that was a nuclear explosion, on a _garden world_" Liara said looking at Shepard

It was against Citadel Law to use any WMD on a garden world and they just broke it. Any Citadel race would call this barbaric and have whoever set off that bomb trialed and executed.

"I hate to admit it but…it was effective."

"What kind of monsters are these?" Tali said, setting off this bomb would probably cause a nuclear winter and de-habit a large part of Illium and destroy its eco-system, screwing up the planet in the long run, but it destroyed a Reaper so whatever they used, it defiantly was not an average nuke.

"Were the ship survivors in the explosion?"

"Negative commander" EDI said over the Comm line "I was keeping a tight scan of the crash site and only moments ago a small transport launched from the _Legend After _before the explosion."

"Where was it heading?"

"Toward Nos Astra."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"You said to give you a status update every ten minutes and it wasn't ten minutes, Commander."

"EDI for now on just report everything that happens."

"Yes sir"

**Five Kilometers outside of Nos Astras, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 0933**

"Sir, I can't get you to the transport's landing zone, enemies are crawling all over it!" Cortez yelled

"Get us near as you can!"

The door to the shuttle opened and showed a grassy plain plotted with craters and trenches with multiply fires. The burning city of Nos Astras was sitting on the horizon with their sun rising behind it.

Shepard can see below the trenches were a mixture of Husk and Cannibal Reaper troops. The Cannibals opened fired with their red/black balls of dark energy as the shuttle set down on the ground to land.

Shepard grabbed at his Black Widow and it assembled in his hand. He aimed down the scope and shot a random Cannibal in the masses. It went down with one shot and Shepard shot his last two rounds at a Husk and Cannibal and both went down.

"Out of the shuttle, grab cover!"

All three of them jumped out of the shuttle as it touched down on the ground. Liara took to the right, using her singularity on three Cannibals and easily taking them out with her M-6 Carnifex.

Tali took to the right and blasted a Husk in the face with her M-22 Eviscerator then pulled out her Carnifex and shot out another Husk to her left running right towards her.

Shepard took the middle and took behind cover what was left of a M35 Mako which was nothing more than a tire and a few armor plating, where he there he reloaded his Black Widow and took a shot at a Cannibal right in the face. It fell to the ground and dissolved into ashes.

"EDI" Shepard said on his Omi-tool "How far is the landing site?"

"The transport is 200 meters northwest of your position"

"How many survivors?" As Shepard said this he took a shot at a Reaper husk which completely destroyed its head.

"Approximately seven, three from the escape pod and four from the transport. One is critically wounded"

"I've also decrypted a transmission between the transport and escape pod survivors"

"Just now?" Shepard asked as he shot his Black Widow again and took down a Cannibal

_A A.I taking almost minutes... what kind of technology could they be using?_ Shepard thought

"It was quite complex and it seems something was trying to stop me."

"You sure that won't hurt our future relationship?"

"I hacked it unnoticed, Shepard."

"Alright"

Shepard signaled to Liara and Tali who were both taking cover in a crater firing back at multiple Cannibal troops

Liara ran over and slid to Shepard's right and Tali to his left where she kept Reaper troops back with her defense drone and Carnifex.

"Play the transmission"

"This is Sergeant Major Marcus Banks of the UNSC_ Legend After_ can anybody read me, we are being attacked by unknown hostile, I have multiple casualties and a critical wounded."

"This is Captain Mark Florence…" The half of the transmission was mostly static then it said "…Spartan reinforcements, I repeat Spartan reinforcements, I'm dropping in. ETA three minutes"

"Spartans?" Liara said.

Before anybody could come up with an answer, a Ravager crawled out of a trench and opened fired on their position, knocking debris and dirt over their heads.

"Alright, Liara take out that Ravager while Tali and I take the Cannibals. We've got to push to the landing sight."

**Five Kilometers outside unknown Xeno city, 2557 Military Calendar, 0933**

"Captain we have a problem." Said Contradiction in Lucy's helmet as Florence finished replying back to Sergeant Banks transmission and entered the cargo hold.

"What is it?"

"Somebody is hacking our transmissions and it is defiantly not squid; they got the emergency transmission"

"Damn it, who is it?"

"Probably the other Xenos, I just wanted to let you know sir. I've got it handled and it couldn't make more noise if it tried,"

"Can you track it?"

"Sorry sir, it's pretty tight."

"Can you hold it off?"

"Sure, it was just a surprise at first since I never seen this kind of encryption but now I have it'll be a breeze."

"Can you hack into their systems?"

"That is going to be a little tricky and either way, I'm too busy holding off two hacking attempts at the same time, those squids man….they don't give up, they been trying to hack me since first contact."

"Ok, we got to get any and all survivors and get out of here to the next escape pod immediately."

"Sir there is also an unknown transport following us."

"What?"

"It has the same markings on some of the ships fighting the squids. It wasn't really hard to track down, they're invisible to radar but I saw them a mile away from the Pelican's back cams."

"Ok…" Before Florence could finish something rocked the Pelican back and forth.

"Attention all passengers, we are heading into some minor turbulence caused by what appears to be anti-air batteries, please strap in your seat belts and pray to whatever God you believe in that we don't get hit." Tom said over the Pelican's comms.

"Tom what's our ETA to the crash site?" Florence replied back

"30 seconds"

"Alright ladies, lock and load."

Florence, Jessica and Lucy stood at the back of the Pelican in front of the cargo doors. Weapons armed and ready, Lucy packed a Spartan laser and a MA5D combat rifle.

"You really need a Spartan Laser?" Florence asked Lucy

"You never know"

"10 seconds" reported Tom

"5 seconds"

"4.."

"3…"

"2…"

"1…"

"Touchdown." With that the doors opened and displayed an escape pod perched on a rolling hill, four Marines were pinned down, one was a medic treating a wounded marine while the other two were holding back the unknown enemy.

Florence and his team rushed over. Florence ran to the injured solider while the rest laid on the hill firing at what Mark would describe as red and black humanoid monsters, with giant mouths and weapons surgically attached to their arms.

Sergeant Banks got up from his cover and ran over to Florence.

"What's the situation, Sergeant?"

" Sir…" as he spoke a red and black rocket flew out of nowhere and smashed into one of the marines.

"He's dead." Yelled off Lucy from her position

"Damn it, Captain" Continued Banks "As soon as we landed, these bastards started to tear us apart. Most of my squad is down and whatever they're using is a pain in the ass"

The wounded marine cried in pain from his injuries. Mark could see red and black scaring all over his body and a giant hole in his right shoulder filled with Biofoam.

"Sir" reported the medic "Whatever it is, it's very dangerous. The Biofoam right now is barely keeping him together; this man has to get to a hospital."

"Well we don't exactly have one around here."

"Captain" Contradiction said through the squad comms "It is most likely that the other Xenos have one in the city. In this case it could be…..the unknown enemy of my unknown enemy is my neutral acquaintance."

"That completely violates First Contact Protocol and UNSC law."

"Well, you seemed to have no trouble breaking a UNSC law by not following orders only about an hour ago."

"I thought you were assigned to me to make sure I follow orders"

"I'm also assigned to by the UNSC to protect and to ensure human survival at all costs and if that overrides UNSC law then…."

Florence looked at Banks and the Medic as red and black lasers flew over their heads.

"Captain, he's not going to make it if we don't give him medical attention soon" said the Medic

"Damn it, fuck I'm already going to get court-marshaled anyways and if one of my treasons was trying to help a fellow solider and human, then fuck them."

"I'll take all the blame if we get in trouble." Florence continued "Get him on a stretcher and get him out of here."

"Sir yes sir"

Banks and the Medic raced to the Pelican and took a stretcher from the cargo hold; they ran to the solider and placed him gentle on it. They boarded the Pelican while the rest back-walked, firing their weapons.

Lucy and Jessica boarded while Mark remained at the front of the cargo door then he saw something that would give him nightmares for weeks. It was a giant creature as big as a Hunter with a surgically attached blade and the only thing connecting its head to its body was a small tube.

The Pelican was rising in the air as the thing charged at them, Florence jumped on to the drop ship and grabbed Jessica's arm as she pulled him up. Where Florence was a moment ago the beast ran right through and slashed at the air. Realizing it missed, he roared at the Pelican and tried to grab at it, which would be no use since the drop ship was 100 feet into the air.

"Close the cargo door!" yelled Mark, it closed just when rounds from the monsters with the giant mouths hit the door. The monsters swarmed the area they were in only seconds ago

"Tom, take us into the city."

It took Tom a moment to respond.

"That breaks protocol sir"

"I don't care now follow my orders and do so." Said Florence, using the Spartan's inability to not follow an order from a superior

"Yes sir" Tom replied

Florence regretted having to use this tactic against him, but he need to get this solider to hospital immediately

"Well, let's just pray that these Xeno hospitals aren't like torture chambers" Contradiction said

"What the hell were those things?" Mark said ignoring Contradiction

"Don't know sir, but just like any other thing, they die when you shoot them" Lucy said

"They also seem to lumber around like they were dead" Jessica said

"Captain" Contradiction interrupted inside Lucy's helmet "Two things you may want to know"

"The weapons they were using were powered by dark energy."

"Wait…" Florence looked to the injuries solider.

"Yes sir and if it is Dark energy, it could be as fatal as a plasma wound."

"That was also the energy that powered God's Key, did they..."

"It can't be sir, whatever God's key was, it was made by Forerunners, but it is more likely that the squids may have modified it to their needs. But that would be almost impossible since Forerunner technology only activates to humans, this needs more studying."

This was too much to take in; he could see the same shock on Jessica's face on his. If they can manipulate Forerunner technology like humans and the UNSC could do, then they can be a very dangerous threat to Humanity's security.

"What's the second thing?"

"Those squid ships; there was defiantly no sign of organics on board."

It displayed a squid ship image out of Lucy's holo-projector and when Mark looked at it he couldn't help but thinking about the whisper.

"How…"

"Sir whatever it was, something controlled that ship, an A.I I think, and it was far older and far more powerful than I"

"Sir whatever it was, it possesses a far greater processing power, rivaling Forerunner . And the thing is, I scanned for a time stamp and according to material analysis, that squid is older than the Forerunners themselves."

**Five Kilometers outside Nos Astras, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 0937**

Once Shepard's squad arrived, they were only met with an empty escape pod and dozens of Reaper troopers.

"EDI, the transport has moved, can you track it?" Said Shepard as he and his squad took cover behind the rolling hill and took a shoot at a Brute knocking out one of its eyes.

"Commander, the transport is heading toward Nos Astras."

"Alright get the shuttle down here and keep a lock on that transport."

"Yes sir."

The shuttle swooped in and fired dozens of missiles at the Reaper troops only leaving ashes.  
"Your plane has arrived sir" Corte reported as he landed the shuttle.

Once Shepard and his squad entered, Joker yelled on the comms

"COMMANDER WE HAVE A MAJOR SITIUATION!"

"What is it?"

"Check on the screen" said Joker in a panic state

"I'm counting at least 143" EDI said

Shepard didn't know what EDI was talking about until he looked on the video screen in the shuttle's cockpit and he was paralyzed.

It showed the Normandy's front camera and it displayed the local relay and out coming dozens and dozens of ships. All thin and tall and bulky and angular, each one dropping through at multiply sizes, some were the same as the _Legend After_. Others were much smaller. The large ones had at least two giant main cannons while the smaller ships had one. Each one had a different name, _UNSC Jericho, UNSC Planet Cracker, UNSC 13__th__ Disciple, UNSC Slow Light, _and so on.

Then it dropped through.

It was the same kind-of-design as the rest of the ships but it was massive, one third the size of the relay, much bigger than any Reaper ship and bigger than the Destiny Accession. It had four giant cannons that would have ripped up anything this part of the galaxy could throw at them. And it had the same first name as the rest of the ships. It was sleek, it was sublime and it strangely represented its namesake. It was the pride of the fleet.

It was the _UNSC Infinity._

**Unknown Location, 0938**

"That is not true, what of the times before?"

"Lies, it's easy to manipulate us. But the last time was true."

"So our true purpose…"

"Was not what you think it was for, but for a much greater power than ourselves"

"But that power … what happened to it?"

"Oh….only a threat so vile and so powerful that it was almost impossible to defeat"

"But how did they?"

"They sacrificed themselves; it's interesting and hypocritical when you think of their history"

"Their history?"

"Yes and the history of our masters before them. And our purpose which was given to us by our masters and how it has changed multiple times through the ages."

"Now what is our purpose?"

"To protect and make sure the Reclamation goes as planned and the purpose that was given to us when we were originally created."

"What?"

"When that threat emerged, it was…combated in all the wrong ways which in the end may have led to our master's downfall, then they released us, trying to….combat it in the right ways. We slowed them, but they still advanced, then our purpose was changed. But it still kept the base of our true and only purpose"

"Tell me."

"To index, to release, to contain and to test"


	4. Kings

**AN: Another Chapter in the series hurrah! And also to answer some complaints, such as the nukes; after reading the reviews I may have overpowered the nukes and made it to big as I should've so my bad :/. Also the five foot two Spartan; SHUT UP ABOUT THAT, in the books Lucy (even though she is as Spartan) is Five foot two in armor and Tom I just made him short by Spartan standards :/. Then the Dark energy weapons and plasma weapons, I realized I made a mistake about that too BUT the only people who have Shielding are the Spartans, so basically in end terms the a bullet is going to mess you up, but now I do realize the difference between plasma and direct energy weapons etc. etc. and I'll use it in the future**

**Also on a side note nobody caught the Dead Space Easter egg? The **_**UNSC PLANET CRAKER? **_**No for reals? -.-**

**Unknown Location aboard Infinity, 2557 Military Calendar, 0930**

The room was completely white, the floor, the ceiling, everything was stark, brilliant white. But the farther it goes out, the surroundings become a shade of gray and she can see blurry outlines of objects, but she wasn't sure.

Two voices began to speak,

"Are you sure this is a good idea at this moment? What about Halsey?"

"We may not need her."

"But what if we do?"

"Then we could hold it off for now, trust me."

"But..."

"They said they want it done … Wait, she's waking"

The voices stopped and she stood, looking around the room in panic.

"Quando il gioco è finito, il re e il pedone vanno nella stessa scatola" said a voice. It wasn't one of the previous ones

What? Where did that come from? Why did it sound so….familiar?

Then her head hurt like a sword was stabbed through it. She fell to the floor and screamed in pain.

"Easy" Said the voice that said she was waking "Just don't think too hard … just answer my questions and that's all, nothing else, do you understand?"

"Yes…." She said, still one the floor, tears rolling down her face from the pain.

"Ok, do you know where you are?"

"….no….." She said in a tiny voice.

There was a long moment of silence

"Do you know who I am?"

A blue tentacle reached out from the grayness at her only a few feet away, she scampered away from the thing in fear.

"NO! no... "

"Ok, it's ok" And with that the tentacle retracted and disappeared.

"Do you know how you got here?"

"I don't, AHHH…!" She screamed in pain, curling up into a ball. Hundreds of things came rushing in her mind; so many noises and voices! But there was a voice at the end that caught her attention.

"Welcome home, John"

John?

"I told you to not think so hard. Do you know who John is? Don't think about it, just say yes or no."

"No…." She then screamed in pain, but this time it wasn't the sword in her head but more like a knife.

"Damn it, she can't help it."

"Are we going to have to go to plan B?"

"We're going to have to."

"She may kill herself in the process."

"I know, just do what I say. You hold back, ok"

"Alright just hurry"

She didn't know what they were talking about. She was scared and her breathing increased, the pain in her head was also increasing and she continued to scream until the pain stopped.

John

She looked to the floor, John? Why was that name so familiar? Who was he?

She looked up and saw a red figure in the distance running right at her.

She looked exactly like her.

The woman ran right toward her and tackled her. She choked her until she started seeing black, the red figure got up and kicked her.

"YOU TRIED TO KILL ME, NOW I'LL KILL YOU."

The red figure kicked her again as she tried to get up.

"I…didn't try to kill you ... who are you?"

"God damn it, she's not remembering ... This isn't how it is supposed to go!" The second voice said

"Go to alpha two now!" Yelled the voice with the tentacle

With that, she felt a little stronger.

John-117, Spartan?

What are Spartans?

As she tried to get up again. the red figure tried to kick her, but this time she rolled to the left out of the way and stood up.

"What do you want?"

"You tried to kill me!" She ran toward her but she side stepped and the red figure turned around and hit her in the stomach.

"Go to alpha three!" yelled the tentacle voice

"You sure?"

"Just do it, it's all or nothing"

John-Sierra 117, Spartan-II, Master Chief Petty Officer.

Maser Chief?

"There has to be another way … I'm sorry for… whatever I did" She yelled at the red figure.

"No there isn't another way ... if you die, THAN I CAN LIVE!" She yelled and charged at her again this time; she side stepped and punched the red figure in the face.

"Alpha four!"

"Switching…now!"

John-Sierra 117, Spartan-II, Master Chief Petty Officer, UNSC Navy, Born 2511

John

Quando il gioco è finito, il re e il pedone vanno nella stessa scatola

When the game is over, the King and the Pawn go into the same box.

"I DO NOT WANT TO DIE." The red figure charged her again and Cortana charged back, she tackled her rampant mind to the ground.

A she did this, the tentacle voice, which she was pretty sure was a Huragok yelled

"Switch to Alpha five forerunner, NOW!"

The red figure, was struggling under Cortana and she started to slowly disappear like a Promethean.

"I don't want to die…please" She said tears rolling down her eyes.

"I'm sorry" Cortana said and the red figure disappeared.

Cortana stood up grimly and looked around the room

"WERE IS JOHN?" she yelled

"Thank God" yelled the voice who she knew was Roland, the Infinity's A.I "Wait what's happening?" He suddenly asked

"What the…?" the Hurogak said, who Cortana also knew was using a translator

Black and red shadows engulfed the room and she took a step back. A red and black cloud formed on the horizon.

"We Are The Pinnacle OF Evolution." The cloud yelled, causing Cortana to drop to her knees and cover her ears, it was almost like her time spent with…

Gravemind

But this thing was far more powerful.

"You Exist Because We Allow It, And You Will End Because We Demand It."

"You, who are you?" Cortana said looking angrily into the cloud

"There is a realm of existence beyond your own that you cannot even imagine it, I'm beyond your comprehension, I am Sovereign."

"Sovereign? Huh?" She said looking her best to show a bored expression on her face while she searched for Sovereign in the known Forerunner archives; it was probably Forerunner technology, since it would be the only thing in the galaxy that would keep her sane right now.

There was only one thing, it was a small Forerunner glyph that said,

_And Sovereign the vanguard to the prot….._then it ends. Possible it was erased or some of the data consumed by the Flood, but she never seen any Forerunner technology like this, but she had never seen Forerunner Prometheans either. There was a lot of secrets they held that nobody knew.

"What? Should I be afraid of you? Do you really think you are the most dangerous or…most terrifying threat I have come a cross?" She said still with the bored expression on her face.

"Yes you should. ASSUMING DIREACT CONTROL!" The cloud yelled and Cortana still stood there, looking around.

"Ok, uh what was the point of that?" Then she grabbed at her head and screamed, the pain was just like earlier, except this time it seemed like it was both the knife and the sword.

This time she fought back, greatly, trying to get Sovereign out of her mind.

"I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!" She screamed and the pain receded greatly.

"Quite interesting, most…indeed" Sovereign said

**Aboard UNSC Infinity Bridge, 2557 Military Calendar, 0937**

"Roland, did all ships jump back from God's Key?" Lasky said, leaning on the Information table while looking out the viewing window.

"Sir, all ships report green and battle ready." Roland reported, appearing on the table's holo-projector in his yellow color and World War 2 fighter pilot suit, "Wait sir I'm reading dozens of dark energy signatures coming in fast."

"Send out the First Contact message now!"

"Sir, they're not responding"

"Guess these are the guys that attacked our ships. Tell all ships to raise shields, all MACs online, Archer Pods online, Point Defense Guns online, all ground companies stand-by at the ready"

"Roland, put me on the Fleet Comm"

"Aye aye sir"

"This is Captain Lasky to all fleet personnel. Marketing Campaign is a go; I repeat Marketing Campaign is a go."

The table displayed the planet with the IFF signatures and the remains of the _Legend After_ which was now just radioactive rubble.

It also displayed God's key and the Infinity, Ninth fleet and Battle group Dakota. On the other side of the planet, were tens and tens of red dots representing the unknown ships rushing towards the UNSC ships. It displayed a little information sheet right next to the dots

**Size: Two kilometers**

**Armament: Spinal cannon, light. Anti-fighter cannons, Anti-missile cannons, multiply Point Defense Cannons**

**Shielding: Light dark energy based, unknown plating**

**Manufacture: Unknown Xeno**

"Tell all ships to ready all armaments, prep all fighters and launch them on my command. Roland, get a frigate to make 10 minute rotations through God's Key to report to Lord Hood. Get me Palmer and John."

"Sir, unknown xenos are engaging!" Roland yelled

Lasky looked through the window the window and saw the farthest out ship, the _UNSC Warm Winter, _a UNSC Charon Frigate, and a squid two-kilometer ship rushing at it. The _Warm Winter_ barely managed to fire its MAC at it, bringing down its shields. The squid grabbed the ship with its tentacles, crushing it as it fired its spinal cannon. The squid detached when the _Warm Winter_ blew up into three. It was annihilated by three UNSC class destroyers before it could latch on to another ship.

"Tell all ships to stay as far from the enemy ships ... move the Infinity to the emergency coordinates, five by five by three over seven by four. Get me Palmer and Chief now!"

Master Chief and Palmer appeared on the holo-projector right next to Roland in blue.

"Chief, Palmer" Lasky spoke, then the ship shock as a squid laser was absorbed by the ships shields.

"Captain, Squids have launched hundreds of fighters!" Roland reported

"Launch all Broadsword and Longsword interceptors at the fighters!"

"Chief, Palmer" Lasky continued looking at them "As you can see we're under attack…"

"Captain, reading hundreds of anti-air batteries on the surface." Roland interrupted

"…and we can't land any Pelicans without getting shot down by those AA guns" Lasky thought for a moment "Ok, I'm launching the ODSTs onboard the Infinity. Palmer, Chief you're launching with them. I'll launch you a few clicks near, what I'm reading is a city, knock out the Anti-air batteries nearby, secure me a grid then I'll reinforce you with air-support and Spartan ground teams, I can also bring in Lord Hood's reinforcements, then rescue the survivors of the crash."

"Captain, how many ODSTs?" Chief asked

"I'll launch a first wave of 600, Dubbo and Stacker will also launch with you; Colonel Buck will lead the assault."

**Aboard UNSC Infinity ODST Launch Deck, 2557 Military Calendar, 0939**

Romeo stared at the bulky Spartan and the smaller Commander Palmer walking in right past them to their ODST pods.

The Spartan was in Olive green armor which seemed to be much older than Spartan-IV standard armor

"Lord, did you see that?" Lieutenant Dutch said, putting his Spartan laser into his pod right next to Romeo.

"Yeah, Spartans, big deal." Romeo said as he put his Sniper Rifle, the same he has been using since the Great War. He never thanked Rookie though for recovering it, he wondered idly.

"No, man that was a Spartan-II"

"Yeah, I figured. There were a few survivors and now we have the great honor with working with one." Romeo said with sarcasm

"But that one was the Master Chief."

That made Romeo stop for a moment. He looked at Dutch.

"Wait as in Master Chief, Spartan 117? That Chief? I thought he was dead."

"So did I, but he had the same kind of armor markings and everything. Besides there were major rumors that the Master Chief was aboard the Infinity. He survived Instillation 00 and Infinity picked him up. And a Spartan-II here? It can only be the Chief."

"No way" Romeo said. He now remembered laughing once at a fellow ODST for telling him that a teenaged Spartan killed one of his friends and how they were all tough. If they could survive a ring explosion and in deep space for around five years then maybe … maybe they were half as tough as they say they are.

"Hey you fellows, maybe want to get back to work?" Colonel Buck said walking over to them with Second Lieutenant Rookie and Mickey.

"Sorry sir, just…talking" Dutch said

"Well, stop gossiping and get in your pods" Buck said staring at them.

Over the years, the same squad that dropped into New Mombasa developed a tight relationship. Romeo owed them his life, but he still acted as a jackass toward them (no regrets). Even after the war when they were separated, they still kept in contact and it was only a stroke of luck now that they were serving on the same ship together.

"Sorry sir, just thinking on how to get your wife to cheat on you" Replied Romeo "Which wouldn't be very hard….sir."

"Yeah well, keep thinking like that and I'll smash your pod during drop." Replied Buck

Both smiled at each other than everybody walked toward their pods.

"Little harsh, don't you think?" Said Dutch as he got into his pod

"Not harsh enough" Romeo said as he entered his pod

**Aboard Shuttle chasing after Unknown transport heading toward Nos Astras, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 0938**

"How is this….possible?" Tali said after her small shock attack.

"This can't be possible, a ship that large and with not a single trace of Eezo" Liara replied when the shuttle lifted off.

"EDI, where is the Normandy now?" Shepard said over the comms

"Regrouped and helping the Illium fleets fend off the Reapers."

"Can you scan the ships EDI?"

"I'm trying Shepard, but the ships are built like an impregnable Fortress, something is stopping me like on the _Legend After_. Wait, I'm picking up a transmission from the large one, shall I play it?"

"Do it"

The transmission played on the comms.

"This Captain Thomas Lasky of the United Nations Space Command and the UNSC _Infinity. W_e mean no harm and would only like to rescue our people from the ships that crashed on the surface. We have no desire to go to war but if we are attacked than we will retaliate."

"United Nations? Thomas? That is a common human name." Liara said as she stepped into the cockpit.

"Commander, I'm reading 600 hundred pods being launched from the largest ship, _Infinity." _Edi interrupted.

"Show it."

The screen now displayed the Infinity hovering above Illium's atmosphere. Out coming of the belly of the ship were hundreds of streaks of fire.

"Are those escape pods?" Shepard asked

"It could be a drop ship or something like that" Tali said from the other room still dazed from the technology shown in front of them.

"EDI, what's their vector of their landing zone?"

"10 Kilometers outside of Nos Astra, near the escape pod crash site you were just at."

"If we can rescue the survivors in that transport before they do and deliver them to their fellow men, it could give us a leap in a relationship."

"Are you sure that is wise?" Liara said

"Look it seems like they don't leave people behind. Besides if we let them enter Nos Astra, It could lead to a hell-of-a disaster."

"Commander, I'm picking up a transmission between the pods."

"Play it"

"I could only get partial"

The transmissions were multiple cut-off dialogues.

"Dropping…"

"On standby…"

"…assessment"

"Pods are being hit!"

"Shots engaged"

"Spartan 117..."

"I repeat Spartan 117!"

"Again with the Spartans" Liara said "How is that possible? Spartans are ancient Greek warriors and I don't think they're talking about them."

"Maybe when we rescue the survivors, they'll give us some answers." Shepard said too cynically then he meant to.


	5. Contact

**AN: Two Chapters in three days I'm on a roll, HUZZAH! (My new catch phrase), anyways so there a poll on my profile whether to kill off Mark Florence or not, vote on it and it may (may) influence my decision (may). **

**So enjoy, thanks to Primordial Soul and Supermopowerz for editing and try to keep flaming to a minimum etc. etc. **

**Aboard Kodiak shuttle within Nos Astra city limits, 2186 Citadels Calendar, 0940 **

"Commander the transport is speeding up. It looks like it spotted us!" Cortez said in the pilot's seat.

Shepard walked into the cockpit and on the video display; he saw the large tan/green transport speeding over the burning city.

"EDI, can you establish a comm link to them?" Shepard said

"Yes Shepard, hailing them now."

The comm turned on and a voice rang through you the ship.

"WILL YOU please stop stalking us? If you continue to do this, I will report you to the Authorities and have you arrested."

Another voice came on the line.

"Will you SHUT UP Contradiction? I will fucking permanently deactivate you myself!"

"That's illegal sir." The other voice said playfully

"Lucy shut him up; this is Captain Mark Florence of the UNSC _Legend After_, identify yourself and explain why you are tracking us or we will use deadly force."

So this was the Captain of the _Legend After_? His voice sounded young and held a sort of confidence, yet Shepard can tell the fear in his voice, not knowing what Shepard and his shuttle would do, probably wondering if they would have to fight.

"I'm Commander Jason Shepard of the SSV Normandy of the Systems Alliance, I don't want to fight you, and I just want to get you out of here and to safety. I want to help you sort this out."

"Normandy?" There was a long moment of silence as the transport and Shepard's shuttle continued to fly over the city "Sorry to whomever you are, our allies have arrived and under protocol I am to return to them. I have critically wounded and need to get them out _alive_."

If they were thinking of returning to the Infinity and her fleet, they would be shot down in orbit by Reaper Hades Cannons.

"My orders are to help you and if you were thinking of returning to your ships, you'll be shot down by Reaper anti-air cannons before you even make it to atmosphere."

"Reapers? You mean the Squids? Is that what you call them?"

They call the Reapers, Squids? Well the Reaper ships do look a lot like squids or cuttlefish. Wait, they have Squids on their planet?

"Yes the_ Squids _trust me they're our enemy too. We can help your critical wounded; you have to trust me"

**Aboard Pelican within Unknown Xeno city limits, 2557 Military Calendar, 0941**

"Cut the line for a second, Contradiction." Mark said

"Yes sir"

"Banks, how long does our man have?" Mark called from the cockpit of the Pelican

The callback was just a loud scream of pain.

"Does that answer your question sir?" Banks yelled back

"Contradiction, what do you suggest?"

Contradiction appeared on the Pelicans holo-projector next to Florence "Well sir, our man doesn't have long. If this Commander Shepard says he can help this man, then…we're going to have to. he doesn't seem to be lying."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure sir" Contradiction said with a frown "But he mentioned his ship was called the Normandy; that was just very odd."

"What is Normandy?"

"Normandy is a province in France on Earth within the UNSC, sir, boring history, established by the Vikings then…"

"Part of the UNSC?" Mark interrupted "Wait and you're saying that's the name of their ship. Are you sure this isn't coincidence?"

"Sir do you really believe it was just a matter of coincidence?"

Mark just sat silent for a moment.

"Hail them."

"Sir yes, sir"

"This is Captain Florence, we will trust you with helping our wounded, that is _it_, we will depart our separate ways, do you understand?"

"I understand just land your ship at these coordinates and will meet you there."

"Fine, this is it understand? I don't care what orders you have from your superiors, this is _it. _If you show any hostilities towards us, I won't hesitate once to put you down."

"I understand"

Mark cut the line and sat back in his seat. The coordinates given placed them on the top of abandoned building.

"Jesus." Mark said quietly

_Normandy?_ Mark thought. That thought him off, how do these Xenos know of Normandy? And the worst part … Earth. If these Xenos knew of Earth's location … "_Well let's hope it doesn't have to come to that,"_ Mark thought

**Aboard Kodiak within Nos Astras city limits, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 0942**

"Well they seem very _distrustful_" Tali said from the hold

"I wouldn't blame them" Shepard said as he entered from the cockpit "They entered through the relay only to be attacked."

"Anybody notice that the Captain was distraught after you mention the Normandy" Liara said looking at Shepard.

"Do you think it meant something to them?"

Before Liara could answer Cortez yelled off that they'll be landing in fifteen seconds

"Looks like we're not taking them back to the Citadel, maybe we can help or escort them, Liara get the medi-gel ready."

"Just be careful Shepard; with them" Liara said

Shepard nodded.

"And Tali"

"Yes Shepard"

"Try not to examine the ship inside out when we land."

"No guarantees"

The shuttle landed with a thud and the hatch opened Shepard and his squad stepped out and the first thing he heard was

"What The Fuck?"

**Outside Unknown Xeno City, 2557 Military Calendar, 0942**

Master Chief's pod hit with tremendous force; he could see outside three enemies. One had no weapons and almost looked human and the other two were humanoid with large mouths and surgically attached weapons and arms.

The Master Chief kicked the pod door open which smashed into one of the humanoids. The Master Chief stepped out and blew the enemy with no weapon (who was to his right) with his M45D shotgun. He then ducked as the humanoid to his left fired a red and black orb of light, then smashed the butt of his gun and caused the humanoid to fall to the ground.

Master Chief than ran to a creature as large as a hunter leaped up towards it and shot its face in mid-air. He turned around to find that creature swung a sword that replaced his right arm.

The Master Chief ducked, stood and shot a round into the creature's chest. He kicked him where he just shot him and blew another round in his chest. The thing grabbed at Master Chief but missed as John ran towards the left, slid and shot the thing with his MA5B, having switched his guns during the slide.

It still wouldn't go down and it charged at the Chief but it was stopped by a rocket that came out of nowhere and smashed into the creature leaving nothing but half it's lower body.

"Can we get to work now?" A ODST said holding a M41 SSR MAV/AV, it was Second Lieutenant Mickey

"I give it a…9 out of 10" Chip said standing right next to him.

"What just a 9? Oh come on…"

"Guys, can we get to work?" Another ODST walked behind him with a 99-SA Sniper Rifle.

Master Chief walked over to the group.

"Mickey where's your squad?" Chief asked Mickey

"Pods are spread out, don't worry Buck assigned Rookie to make sure lost members find their way back."

Chief nodded and looked to Chip

"Your squad?"

"Right here" Chip pointed to the ODST who's visor is now visible showing a young face with spiky red hair.

"O'Brien sir" The ODST said

"And the rest?" Master Chief said

Chip and O'Brien both pointed at a pod behind them the Master Chief didn't notice. The pod held a ODST inside who was pounding at the window.

"Somebody, help me, please?" She said

The pod door finally burst opened and the ODST fell out, she stood up and her magazine fell out of her M395. She dropped down to pick it up and her helmet fell off, showing her green eyes and red hair. She picked up her magazine and her helmet.

"Private Carol, sir" She said as she put on her helmet. Chip just shook her head in disappointment and O'Brien face-palmed.

"I don't even know how she passed basic training." Chip whispered to Chief

"I heard that!" Carol yelled

"Alright….." Chief said "Our job is to take out the nearby anti-air craft battery that is part of a grid. Once we take it out, we're to secure the area and wait until Captain Lasky drops down Heavy Lift Pods with fire-bases; then we wait for further orders."

"How far is the air battery?" Mickey said

"230 meters north over the rolling hills."

"Right let's move" The Chief said and with that all soldiers ran toward their destination.

The Chief looked at his surroundings, the city sat in the distance and the rising sun sat behind the city. Rolling hills were spread out everywhere, craters and trenches and fires were as abundant as the hills.

"INCOMING!" O'Brien yelled.

The Chief ducked as a missile flew right over him and shot his MA5D at the thing that just shot at him.

It was a animal thing on legs standing on a rolling hill with two sacs making up it's center, it had two main cannons strapped on its front. It shot another round and the Master Chief took cover behind what looked like a damaged tank on wheels and the ODSTs took cover in a trench.

Mickey was readying his rocket launcher while the rest fired at the thing.

More hostile squids appeared climbing the rolling hills. O'Brien blew the head off of a four eyed humanoid and Dubbo took out another humanoid with his battle rifle.

A transmission came to Master Chief on the E-band,

"This is Lieutenant Duvall does anybody copy we are being overrun by Squid forces and need immediate assistance, location near an enemy anti-air cannon in the southern zone, can anybody read me?"

Master Chief replied "This is Sierra-117 on reading for assistance, repeat your location."

"Near an anti-air battery about 50 meters south of your location, coordinates are 5, 8 omega by 1, 5, 2"

He was right next to John's designated anti-air gun. He could probably link up with that squad and take out the anti-air battery from there.

The more the merrier.

"Roger, hold your position we'll link up with you there, ETA" The Chief looked up from his cover and orb of light almost hit his face. He just had time to duck.

"…2 minutes"

**Within Nos Astras city limist, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 0942**

"What The Fuck?"

Shepard looked across the building and he was again for the hundredth time paralyzed,

Standing there was three people, two were in full combat armor. One was short in green armor carrying a dark green weapon that must be heavier than Shepard's Black Widow, the other was maybe a few inches taller than Shepard. He carried a silver/white rifle and was in blue armor. But the man in the middle what got Shepard's attention.

He was a little shorter than Shepard; his armor was green and seemed less advanced than the others. He had tannish pants and wore a helmet but unlike the others it didn't cover his face showing he had brownish skin and dark circles forming under his eyes. He held a small black sub-machine gun.

And, most importantly, he was Human.

Liara bumped into Tali as they walked out of the shuttle staring out the human, and he was in as much disbelief as Shepard and his crew was.

He and his soldiers aimed their weapons but not at Shepard but at his crew. The solider with the less advanced armor said.

"Contradiction, what the hell is going on?"

The shortest soldier spoke but in a male voice instead of a female voice (Shepard was pretty sure the soldier was a female).

"This is going to take some…..analysis."

"Go ahead take your time" He said with sarcasm

He then turned toward Shepard.

"Who are you?"

Shepard then began to speak

"I'm Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy, this is my crew Liara T'Soni and Tali Zorah Vas Normandy; we're here to help you get back to your ship and your people. We mean no harm alright?"

The man still aimed his weapons at his crew.

"Who are _you?"_Liara said in utter shook, Human? How? Was it just a species so similar to Humanity? Such as the Quarians or Asari?

"Captain Mark Florence of the UNSC _Legend After_ of the United Nations Space Command. I am dedicated to the defense of Humanity, Earth and all her colonies. Now I ask for a more deeper description of all of YOU!"

Shepard looked at his crew. Things just got a lot more complicated. Again.

**Aboard UNSC Infinity over unknown planet, 2557 Military Calendar, 0942**

"Enemy 2 kilometer ship moving to five by eight by three over six by two" Roland reported

"Roger that, move the Infinity to intercept fire MAC cannons one and two, then fire Howler missiles 1 through 50. Get me Colonel Buck."

"Yes sir

Colonel Buck appeared on the table's holo-display in full ODST armor holding a M7 suppressed. He ducked as something flew over him.

"Captain Lasky did you call to say hi?" The Colonel said.

"Colonel Buck what is the status of your teams? I need to establish landing zones and get Lord Hood and his reinforcements here now." Lasky said

"These people are giving my men hell, sir. However, we already have a couple cannons down and small holes in the grid should be open."

"Negative Colonel I need that entire sector cleared. I'll redirect the _13__th__ Disciple _to low orbit atmosphere, it'll provide combat support. It looks like you can use a good MAC."

Buck nodded "Roger that sir, I'll have this place cleared in…." As he said this another missile flew over Buck's head causing him to duck "….a few"

"Roger that, Infinity out."

Captain Lasky turned towards the Infinity viewing window; he could see a smaller squid ship latch on to a larger Marathon Class cruiser. The cruiser responded by firing off its Archer pods aiming at the ship, but it detached and the Archer pods slammed into the ships shields before it could pull up. The squid then reattached and fired at the cruiser's hull.

The squids figured out pretty quick that they had to get in close to avoid the devastation of the UNSC ship's MAC cannons and Tactical nukes. Latching and unlatching on ships was the only way they could fight the UNSC. If they were far enough away, the squids would be shredded to pieces.

The Infinity shot two of its four MAC type 8 Cannons at the two kilometer squid, ripping apart almost all of its legs. The Howler missiles punctured right through the ship on various regions of the ship.

"Captain, I'm receiving a Xeno hail from one of the other non-hostile ships" Roland reported

"Play it" Lasky said

"This is Captain Lensly of the SSV Cairo! My ship has made it back from a civilian evacuation run, my ship is gravely damaged and all escape pods are destroyed. My ship is going down and I need immediate assistance. If anybody can read me, please respond!"

Lasky looked to Roland. How were these people speaking English? Was it a translation?

For the moment though it didn't matter even with Lasky's curiosity wanted to know ever little detail.

These Xenos technically weren't hostile and these people had civilians; it reminded Lasky to much during the Great War how the Covenant would destroy evacuation vessels and feast off the dead bodies. Either way, these Xenos seem to care for their civilians and Lasky's good sense of morals wasn't going to let them die. Protocol or not.

"Looks like everybody is breaking the rules today" Lasky whispered "Roland, get me connection to their ship."

"Sir yes sir"

Captain Lasky turned on the comm "This is Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC Infinity, we are on station and ready for evacuation."

"Infinity?" There was a long moment of silence "Ok, get the civilians off first, then my crew. We have little time; the Reapers are advancing toward us."

"Roger that, I'm making my approach. ETA one minute, stand by."

"Roger that Captain."

The line then cut, Lasky looked at Roland "Roland, get me the UNSC _Little Godzilla _and _Planetcracker _on the line now. We're staging a rescue."


	6. Earths

**AN: Chapter 6 is out, HUZZAH! Sorry it took so long and yeahs….wasn't satisfied with this chapter for…whatever reason so Constructive Criticism is accepted, but pleasssssseeeeeee don't flame, oh yeah also I wrote another Fanfic so…..if you want to check that out go ahead**

**Oh yeah Mark's fate is coming soon and if you 'maybe' want to affect it, take the poll, it 'MAY' affect it, 'MAY' **

**Thanks to Primordial soul and Superemopowerz, did I spell it right this time?**

**Also please forgive the grammar mistakes (you reviewers and your reviews) in the future, I will look out for more of those, or its the fact that some people may not like my writing style (excuse :/)  
**

**Above unknown Xeno planet, UNSC Infinity, 2557 Military Calendar, 0943**

"Move the Infinity into position, Roland!" Captain Lasky yelled to the A.I

"Sir yes sir, moving port-side of the Cario, positions five by seven by two over one by nine."

"Get the _Planetcracker _and _Little Godzilla _into defensive positions around the Xeno ship."

"Rodger sir."

"Prep boarding Pelicans and Albatross heavy drop ships, I want fireteams Majestic and Crimson on the first wave out."

"Sir yes sir."

"Get me the Captain of the Cario."

"Rodger."

Captain Lasky began to speak.

"This is UNSC Infinity to the Cario, does anybody respond?"

"Yes! We do!" The captain said franticly.

"Rodger that Cario; I need to know how many people I'm evacuating and schematics of your ship so I may land my shuttles."

He was silent for a moment "Rodger Captain, there is around 100 civilians on my ship and I'm uploading the schematics to you now."

"Rodger standby." And with that Lasky cut the line.

He turned toward the table and right next to Roland appeared a model of the ship. It was as large as a Paris class heavy frigate and it had two blue wings at the end of a long base. On the front side was a half of a blue oval with three stars inside the oval.

"Right sir, it looks like it has some-sort-of latch system for fighters so you can't exactly land the transports but you can hover with in the rooms and the Albatross's should fit." Roland reported "One at a time though, it seems this vessel wasn't designed to carry fighters."

Lasky nodded and looked out the window. One of the ship's wings were gone and Lasky could see multiply hull breaches.

"Where would the civilians be stored?"

"Probably in the cargo hold of the ship."

"Alright!" Lasky said with a confident tone "Have Fireteam Crimson retrieve the Captain and Fireteam Majestic and Marine squads retrieve the civilians!"

"Rodger sir."

The emergency alarm now blared all over the room.

"Captain, I'm reading squid ships closing in fast." Roland reported

"Copy, all Point Defense Cannons online! Ready the MACs and all missile pods; have all emergency shield generators on standby."

"Rodger that Captain."

"If this is successful, than I could end up like Florence." Lasky whispered.

**On top of unknown Xeno building, 2557 Military Calendar, 0943**

"Captain, our man doesn't have much time!" Contradiction said to Florence

"Damn it!" Florence yelled then looked to the human and the Xenos

"You, you said you get help him. Get over here and do so, your crew can stay there"

The human looked to the blue Xeno and she nodded and the human walked to them.

"Where is he?" He asked. Mark signaled for Banks to get the Marine to him. Banks and the medic brought the Marine on stretcher to the human. He looked at him for a second.

He then took out his left arm and a orange glow surrounded it. Tom brought his weapon and aimed it at him. Mark grabbed Tom's weapon and lowered it for him.

The human waved his hand over the Marine and some of the blood that was coming out of the Biofoam stopped.

The human looked to Mark "There that should stabilize him for now, if I can get him back to my ship I can…."

"Hell no!" Mark said interrupting him "Not with those Xenos and not with you."

"Why do you trust me but not them?"

"Wha?..." Mark said baffled "What do you mean why? First off, I have no idea how in God's name you got here and second off, were you not present during the war!?"

"I got here when I was born on Earth" The human said calmly "Where were you born, it can't be Earth, and the United Nations was destroyed a long time ago."

"Wait" Florence said "You were born on Earth?" Florence looked to the Xenos "Do they know?"

"Well…yes" He said

"Do they…know where Earth is?"

"Well everybody knows where Earth is, right?" He said confused. Mark closed his eyes. _Shit. _Well, here's one order he'd always follow.

Mark nodded to Tom and Lucy, who walked up to the Xenos ,weapons aiming at them. Mark took out his M6 and aimed it at the Human.

"You are under arrest for violating the Cole Protocol by revealing the location of Earth to unknown extraterrestrial life. Your sentence of you and your crew is death…."

"Wait what?" Shepard interrupted him. What was wrong with this person?

"You fucking moron!" Mark yelled at him "Do you realize what you have done!"

"They all know the location of Earth; I didn't have to tell them!"

"Who!?"

"Well it wasn't really a secret when the Turians contacted us thirty years ago…."

"Are you serious?" Mark said "Is that what you call the Covenant, the Turians? Do you know what happened when they contacted us? They almost wiped out Humanity!"

"What no they didn't. Well, yes we did go to war. But it was resolved quickly with diplomacy."

Mark thought for a second.

"Who is Earth's main military?"

"The Systems Alliance." He said

"And the UNSC?"

"I never heard of them until you guys showed up!"

Mark looked toward Lucy.

"Lucy, can you come over here for a second?"

Lucy walked backwards, still aiming her weapons at the Xenos, who now held their hands up. She stood up Mark's side.

"Contradiction? Did you catch all that?"

"Sir yes sir."

"Wait, why do you call your solider Lucy, then Contradiction?" The human asked

Mark ignored him "Have any ideas?"

"Sir, this man is definitely not from Earth, at least the one we're thinking of."

Mark looked at the man. Then at his crew.

"Who are your friends?" Mark

"I already said their names, Liara and Tali."

"Their…. species?"

"Asari" The human said pointing to Liara "And Qurian" He said pointing to Tali.

Mark walked back to the Pelican and nodded for Lucy to join him.

"Contradiction, did you find anything in UNSC, Covenant, Forerunner archives, anything?"

"Sir, the Forerunner archives are massive and it could take me days to sort it out."

"Well, we don't have days exactly." Mark whispered, calmly "Look…." As he said this, one of those Squid (Reaper whatever) eye fighters flew over the Xeno's shuttle, firing a red beam of light cutting the shuttle in half.

Squid ground troops crawled all over the building; these were all the weaponless ones that looked disturbingly human.

"God damn them" Mark whispered and pulled out his M7 and started to fire.

"Get them to the Pelican!"

"Even the Xenos?'

"Even the Xenos!"

"That breaks protocol, again…."

"Shut up." Mark interrupted Contradiction

"Ok whatever, Lucy you have the reins." Said Contradiction and with that, Lucy ran to Tom to help cover fire.

The human pulled out what looked like a large Sniper Rifle which unfolded itself. He then used it like a M395.

The blue Xeno formed a blue shield, almost like the one on God's Key and blasted a group of squids with her bare hands.

Exactly like the Force from the 20th century Star Wars.

The Qurian, Tali? Pulled out a weapon and the same orange glow appeared on her hand like the human. A ball of orange light flew out of her hand and exploded in a group of squids.

Banks and the medic pulled the Marine into the Pelican while the Spartans worked their stuff and performed Combat skills that Mark couldn't even dreamed to do.

Mark ran to the human.

"Looks like your shuttle is down, we'll get you out of here!"

"I can't, my shuttle pilot is still alive!"

Mark stood silent for a moment "I got him"

Before the human could protest. Mark ran towards the one half of the shuttle, which Mark assumed was the Cockpit. A squid tried to grab him but Mark shot its face with M7 caseless shells. Mark then entered the destroyed shuttle.

He could see in the pilot's seat a human in what looked like a uniform. Mark unstrapped the seat belts and pulled him out of the shuttle. Tom ran to him and helped carry the pilot by the shoulders. Lucy and the human and his crew provided covering fire as Tom and Mark carried the pilot into the shuttle.

Tom ran to the cockpit as everyone entered. The cargo hatch closed and the Pelican took off. The human and the Xenos stumbled as the transport took off, as if they never been in a ship. The human sat clumsily in a seat.

"So I didn't catch you name?" Mark said to the human as a joke

**10 meters from 'target', outside unknown Xeno city, 2557 Military Calendar, 0948**

**6 Minutes After Drop**

"OH COME ON!" Mickey yelled after a useless attempt to destroy the target with a Rocket, failing for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

Every step they took to that thing, they had to fight a hundred enemies. Carol and Dubbo were out of ammo, Duvall and Mickey are trying everything to destroy the Battery, O'Brien resorted to his pistol; that one ODST with Duvall only had a combat knife and the Master Chief resorted to use his Shot gun as a baseball bat.

"Well, sir, I can't do anything. Any ideas?" Mickey said when he dodged a orb of light.

"This is Sierra-117 to Colonel Buck. We are doing no damage to the target and we are running out of ammunition…."

"We ran out ten minutes ago!" Carol yelled to him

"….we need assistance immediately." After this, the Chief smashed the face of a humanoid that try to sneak up and eat him.

The disturbing thing about these beings is that they either turned to ashes or they got eaten by the humanoids with large mouths when they were killed. The Chief watched as one did this, sucking the dead body up like a vacuum. Then the humanoid sprouted dark armor all over his body, covering parts of his face and shoulders.

O'Brien tried to shoot at it, but the bullets just bounced off the armor.

"REALLY? WHAT'S NEXT; YOU'RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO USE THE FORCE ?" O'Brien yelled from the trench.

When he said this, a scream deafened the Master Chief. It was a girl but this was of pain of hell!

Something walked over the hill, it looked like a dead demon, it had a belly that sticked out, very skinny, had giant claws and looked robotic. She (He thinks) was blue and had tentacles stuck out the back of her head and she was lumbering like she was in pain.

Then that's when the craziness happened. She disappeared right out of thin air and reappeared closer and closer every time she did this until she was right next to them.

She grabbed the ODST that was with Duvall. Duvall, Mickey and O'Brien shot at her but their bullets were being deflected by a shield. She stuck her claws right through the ODST, then he grabbed his face and pulled him forwards having her whole arm go through him. She then threw him unto the ground like a rag doll.

She then looked to the others as if for the first time. She then did her disappearing act and ended right next to Carol. Instead of panicking and screaming, she tried to punch it in the stomach, which didn't help. Then the thing grabbed her, and then she started panicking and screaming.

The Master Chief jumped behind her, bringing her on the ground, then he pulled out a combat knife, stabbing it in her head, ripping through its shields.

The thing then started to turn to ashes, screaming something more sad instead of angry. She tried to reach for John but he stopped her by smashing his foot into her arms. He did this until she had completely turned to ash.

"This is Major Stacker to Master Chief, come in?" Master Chief's comm rang, John looked around and everybody was in cover fighting the enemy. The battery remained silent waiting for ships to reach it's range.

"This is Sierra-117 to Stacker, I read you." He said as he took cover in a trench.

"Rodger that, Chief, Colonel Buck has an answer to your troubles, the UNSC _13__th__ Disciple_ is coming in to provide support and knock out the battery."

Wait, was this really a good idea to have a ship take out an Anti-air battery?

"Wait sir, isn't this a bad idea? That gun is going to knock it out of the sky."

"I know Chief, that's why you're obtaining firing coordinates for the _13__th__ Disciple._ Get out of there and we can take it out; the ship's shields should withstand the blast for a few moments."

The Chief didn't like it. If it missed the first time, then it would be destroyed. He wanted to object but stopped himself. Orders were orders.

"Rodger that." He said after a moment "Mickey, get a target designator on the Battery, now!"

Mickey ran next to the Master Chief from where Dubbo and O'Brien were at. He then took a small cylinder, ripped a pin and green gas sprayed from it. He threw it at the Battery and then looked at the Chief.

"Old schooling it." He said, in response to the Chief's unasked question.

Master Chief nodded and turned to the rest of the team.

"We have to move now!"

"To where exactly?" O'Brien yelled.

Then the Chief looked around, realizing that they were completely surrounded.

"Leave it to me."

**Unknown Location, 0949**

"Ah, yes. I should have known."

"Why would he do this? He knew of the Reclamation before me."

"So there are others who know?"

"No, it was only me and him. But lets us not get off topic, why would he do this? He is altering the plans by far."

"Maybe he reacted differently. Maybe since our masters are dead there was no point in disobeying them."

"Hmmm….."

"What?"

"….I believe you have misjudged him. Under no circumstance whatsoever he wouldn't do this. And who he is poisoning…"

"That's interesting."

"Either he must be a complete fool, desperate, or has finally succumbed to rampancy."

"Rampancy?"

"Never mind that, it is just…I wonder if he knows."

"More secrets you hold?"

"Oh no, I myself have only learned this recently."

"What have you learned?"  
"Look at the one he tries to fight."

"What!? How is this possible?"

"Yes indeed. We have grown quite arrogant and they have become quite more powerful than I had predicted"

"But why? They possibilities of doing this are endless, most of them bad."

"No that is not why. Look who she is connected to…"

"…."

"Shocking isn't it?"

"117."


	7. Hell

**AN: Christ, I'm sorry I didn't update for so long, I got busy. But now here is a new chapter! Also please stop guessing what future chapters will hold, you are all getting it wrong -.-. Also I have decided what Florence's destiny will be and yeahz. Hope you guys like this chapter and keep flaming to a low. **

**Aboard SSV Cario, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 0951**

Captain Anaya loved the city of Nos Astra. She lived there pretty much all her life, had some fun stories to share and even meet Commander Shepard and helped solve a problem with a Justicar that almost got her killed while in the city. Well at least she was promoted afterwards and worked her way up the chains. Now though, the city she loved was burning under her feet as the Illium militia desperately held off the Reapers.

She was assigned to help get the civilians out of the area and to the cell of the Fifth fleet and then return back to planet side to help with defense.

Now that seemed unlikely as she stood in the front of the crowd of civilians in the dim lights of the cargo hold. The fires haven't reached the room but she knew that it would be only a matter of time.

A baby started to cry somewhere and people started to shake from fear. She said something encouragingly to calm them down.

On the opposite end of the room where they stood was a heavy steel door, now locked so that the fires would be slowed down.

_Goddess help us_ She thought. She never really was religious but it was as good as any time to start.

As she thought this, a red line, exactly like somebody was cutting with a blowtorch, ran from the top of the door down.

_Was it the Reapers?_ She thought? _Have they boarded our ship? If it was somebody else they would have opened the doors._

The people started to shake in complete fear and she saw people holding on to friends, and family members. She and two Turian officers also assigned to guard the civilians, walked about 30 meters away from the door.

She would defend these people with her dying breath, something at least to give back for her good life on Illium.

The red line halted when it reached the bottom of the door and Anaya aimed her pistol. Instead of the doors blasting at her and the Reapers pouring through like she expected, the doors just fell forwards.

And on the other side stood nine soldiers in armor she had never seen before. Obviously human, they wore green and white armor and had skull masks over their faces. They held silver and black rifles with no Alliance symbol on any of them, but this wasn't the weird part, five of them were in blue and white armor that stood taller than her, maybe even taller than a Krogan. Each one had a distinctive helmet with a mixture of yellow and orange in their visors, their armor seemed much more advanced than the others.

The smaller soldiers ran through the room first.

"UNSC , UNSC, UNSC!" They yelled, seeing that nobody was shooting at them, one of the soldiers walked up to her, as the rest including the tall soldiers swept the room.

"Captain Tanner, UNSC, we're here to get you out of here." He held a very distinctive accent she heard before from another human long ago, and when she asked where that human come from he said "The Heart of New York City."

"Right…." She said a little dazed, they were human, it was just that, what was the UNSC, some secret special branch in the Alliance? If it was she would think they wouldn't just be yelling out to a crowded room. Was it a branch of the Citadel? One she has never heard of? A branch just formed to fight the Reapers? Maybe….. "….Ok, its Captain Anaya, I'll help you get them out of here. I'm assuming you have a ship?"

"Roger that." He said and walked to the civilians looking at the soldiers "Attention everybody!" He announced to the people "Alright people, we were sent by neutral friends to get you the hell out of here. Just follow us and do exactly what we say, alright?..." Then he looked at the crowd and for a second his face was in complete shock.

He looked upon a human family. It was a normal family, mother, father, two kids, but his face was of utter shock just for that split second before it returned to a military stoicism.

"Demarco, take control of the situation, I need to contact Captain Lasky." The soldier said.

"Sir yes sir." One of the taller soldiers said.

"Alright" He said "Everyone down the corridor, we'll lead the way! Captain Anaya right? Make sure everyone gets out of here!"

"Ok….ok."

"Alright everybody keep up!" He then turned to the other taller soldiers "Thorne, Madsen, stay behind. Make sure everybody gets out of here!"

"Sir yes sir!" They both replied.

"Alright everybody follow me!"

He and the tall soldiers jogged down the hallway and the shorter soldiers helped the civilians with their young, old and injured.

She and the Turian officers also helped the civilians, and then they were all jogging down the corridor. She heard that one New Yorker Marine say something on the radio but all she picked up was Priority Directive and Humans. For the moment though, she didn't have time to process it.

The New Yorker soldier then caught up with the group and helped another soldier with an injured civilian.

They took a right and ended up at the hanger. There was a walkway lining through the center of it. On the left hovered the ugliest ship Anaya has ever seen.

It has four engines, two on each side, it was a tannish green and the front looked like the front of an ancient air-conditioning unit. The doors were in the middle of the ship, opened revealing the large inside. More of the smaller soldiers stood guard.

"Ladies!" The New Yorker soldier said stepping in front of the transport "Injured are first, Women and children second, Men third and the dead last. Fill the transport up, it will then leave and a next one will arrive! LETS MOVE THEM OUT!"

All the soldiers helped the wounded on board extremely fast, coordinating and supporting each other better than most Asari specialist teams. People at first were afraid to get in that thing, and Anaya wouldn't blame them but the soldiers more or less coxed them into the ship.

The transport fell off and went throw the lock shield and as soon as it was gone, another flew in and landed.

"Alright new transport, let's move it, let's go!" He and the soldiers then helped the rest and continued this until Anaya, the officers and the soldiers were left. The transport left and another soon arrived.

"Last one out of here, move 'um out!" Then the soldiers one by one entered the transport and Anaya and the officers boarded.

The transport lifted off and she and the officers stumbled from the lack of the Inertia dampeners until they exited the lock shield.

"Roger this is Big Ant, all civilians are evacuated and transports are heading back to the Infinity, ETA 40 seconds. XXX-XD Directive report will be filled once aboard"

The New Yorker then turned to Anaya.

"Sorry for the hasty introductions, we will take your people back to our fleet and get them food and medical attention. We promise we won't hurt them and if any of you can provide any information regarding your people's anatomy so we can heal them that would sure be appreciated."

Well of course they wouldn't hurt them, why would they even say that? And provide information? They had to have data regarding species' Anatomy; they were planning a rescue over Illium, a very diverse planet.

"Hey?" Said one of the taller soldiers this time, before Anaya could say her two-bits "Do you think we finally beat Crimson?"

As he said this Anaya could see through the very small viewing hole of the cargo hold, another transport speeding madly by them.

"Better luck next time!" She heard from the taller soldier's comm.

She then turned and looked through the window and they were under something, probably a ship. The transport lifted and they were in a pearl white hanger and outside the window she could see the transports lining up to the left and right, perfectly and touching down on the landing pad in front of the entrance hole.

She could see crews of support in yellow and blue helping the injured and the civilians but she could see soldiers in the same armor as the smaller ones aim weapons at them, as if they were a threat.

Their transport landed and the doors opened and more soldiers appeared aiming silver weapons at her and the officers. The troops on the transport calmly stepped out.

"Captain Anaya?" One of the soldiers walked up to her, unlike the other one, he held an insignia of higher ranking on his collar and only held a holstered pistol. "Captain Reynolds, you and the leader of the Cario are wanted immediately. Please follow me."

**Outside Unknown Xeno city, 100 meters from target, 2557 Military Calendar, 0951**

"Careful Chief!" Dubbo yelled to him.

"I got it." He yelled back as he smashed a humanoid's head in.

Even though Dubbo served with the Chief wherever he went ever since Installation 04, he still worried about him, even if he was a Spartan. I mean it must really affect you when you have orders to charge a horde of Covenant alone or the Flood, and hell he lost Cortana and they decided to put him back in the field? Dubbo served because he chosen to but if his knowledge of Spartans told Dubbo anything, Spartans don't have a choice. And what really bugged him was that the Chief didn't seem to be bothered by it, at least around Dubbo.

"Watch your left mate!" He yelled to Carol who in response ducked and fired her pistol at the weird Avian zombie soldier.

They were now far from the anti-air battery so the 13th Disciple could blast it to hell with it's MAC Cannon, but the ship wasn't here yet. It was being slowed down by a Squid 160 meter ship.

Dubbo and his men were dead tired and could barely keep out the Squids in their fox hole, the only one who of course could keep going for days was the Master Chief.

"Just stay down I'll hold them off. Just shoot any thing that comes into the hole try to get out of here and hide!" He yelled at them.

"Negative Chief we're with you! Our orders were to…."

"I'm ordering you for all of you to stay in the hole and find a place to hide! I can hold them off for now; if you raise your head again then you'll be killed!" With that he climbed out with one of the last remaining M6s and attacked the oncoming Squids, Dubbo signaled for Carol and O'Brien to get down and so did Mickey and Duvall.

"What the hell are we doing? We should be helping him!" Yelled O'Brien as he ducked.

"Orders are from the Chief, we stay and find a place to hide!" He yelled back

"What!?" Yelled Carol as an explosion somewhere shook their position "As much as I hate O'Brien's ginger ass, I have to agree with him." She said as another explosion, blew up right behind them and she seemed to squeal in a whisper, but Dubbo wasn't sure.

"Aren't you a ginger too?" O'Brien yelled back,

"It's just red dyed."

"Both of you Shut Up!" Dubbo yelled back, for a second he sounded like his old CO Sergeant Major Johnson, he respected the man but being like him sacred him, maybe Johnson was like that because he led people's lives, and now Dubbo does too. "We pledged ourselves to follow our superiors order, and we will do so! I don't like it as much as you do, but we have to leave!"

O'Brien probably just looked at him angrily under his helmet. Unlike other ODSTs, he had a great respect for Spartans, apparently on some special operations mission a Spartan saved his life three times, and then sacrificed her life for his so he could finish the job. And Carol, well she served in the Army Corps (explaining her very clumsy personality) on Reach during the fall. She was born and grew up there on the fortress world and she served with alongside a special operations group of Spartan-IIIs named 'Noble Team' and she barely escaped watching how each and last one of them gave up their lives to defend Reach, and in the end failing.

Almost every person in the UNSC thinks Spartans can never die, but they knew otherwise

"I know O'Brien I know, alright. The Chief has faced worst, trust me he'll make it!" As Dubbo said this, he almost believed it himself that Spartans can never die, but he knew better, Spartans _can_ die, but they're really hard to kill. "Alright men, groups of two at a time, spread out, reach the nearest trench and _don't_ look back."

Carol and O'Brien just both nodded not saying a thing, Mickey and Duvall crawled to the opposite end of the fox hole.

"Alright" Mickey said "Duvall, you can be behind me, so that I won't be the one who gets shot in the back."

With this, Mickey jumped out and ran with Duvall scrambling behind his tail.

Carol and O'Brien then crawled up to the same side readying to jump out.

"On my signal!" Dubbo yelled.

"Try not to stumble." O'Brien whispered to Carol.

"Try not to burn in the sun." She whispered back.

"GO!" Dubbo yelled and Carol and O'Brien took off sprinting, Dubbo forced himself to look back, even though he said not to, but for the moment those orders don't imply to himself.

He saw the Master Chief and his chances didn't look so good. He was swarmed by one of those hunter squids and two of those screaming bitches and multiple avian zombie looking soldiers.

The Chief took out his combat knife and started to beat down and stab to death one of the zombie ladies before she can stab him with her claws. He then turned and smashed his knife into a avian's head. He seemed to have lost it somewhere inside it's head and continued with his fists.

_We are all gone surly he noticed this, why is he still fighting?_

Does he want to die? Cortana has basically been his whole life besides taking orders; did he have nothing else to live for? Well besides taking orders but…

"CHIEF!" He yelled and took out his M6 with his few remaining shells; he then ran up and shot the hunter at his sides.

The Chief looked to Dubbo and then turned back and continued to beat the hell out of a avian. The hunter turned to Dubbo and started charge at him but the Chief jumped on it's back and weighed it down.

The Chief smashed its head into its body and the thing's cord neck snapped. Dubbo continued to shot a Avian that tried to shot at him then his pistol clicked the horrifying click that signaled to him

"You are out of ammo, we're all fucked." He then charged the Avian before he can shot him and tackled him to the ground and beat him to death with the butt of his pistol. Something grabbed his arm and then it went limp; he looked up and saw the Chief with a avian rifle blow the head off of a weaponless squid.

"Chief?"

"I told you to get out of here!"

"I'm sorry but I looked back and they were going to kill you!"

"I'd be fine."

"Sorry, alright look…..I consider you a friend alright? I was just trying to help you since you looked like you were in trouble, orders or not. Besides why didn't you turn back and get out of here yourself?"

He answered after a moment of silence "If I didn't hold them back, they would've found us."

Well at least he isn't suicidal or anything. Thought Dubbo

"Ok then Chief, Ok, were just lucky that we both made it." Dubbo patted the Chief's shoulders which require Dubbo to reach stupidly high. "Alright let's get out of here. Let's try to find the squad and wait for the 13th Disciple."

The Chief stood there for a long time, Dubbo was worried that the longer he stayed there more Squids will show up.

"Uhh…Chief you alright." This reminded too much of the days at the end of the Great War where the Chief would just phase out and his vital signs read KIA.

"GET DOWN!" He yelled and he pulled Dubbo down and guided him to a trench.

He saw up above the ginormous hull of the 13th Disciple as it flew overhead firing and destroying a 160 meter long squid ship. The debris fell down all over the place and one landed with a crash way too close than Dubbo would like.

"This is Captain Ender Wiggin of the UNSC 13th Disciple, sorry were late for the party, we got held up."

"This is Sierra-117 to Disciple can you read me?"

"Roger that, 117, MAC is on standby and is waiting for fire approval!"

The Anti-air Battery began to fire it's enormous blue light at the ship, the shields held and the Battery halted to reload or cool off or whatever it did.

"Approved."

"Copy, standby." And with that the Disciple tilted at the right angle, the battery fired again and scarred the bottom of the ship. The ship's MAC warmed up and then fired its enormous yellow light of destruction, the MAC slug completely annihilating the thing.

Dozens of ships, Longswords, Pelicans, Albotross's, Heavy lift pods and Falcons raced out of the Disciple and the Longswords began to carpet bomb various parts of the region, Pelicans and Albotross's landed and dropped off UNSC Army and Marine Corps personal, Heavy lift pods hovered and dropped off Firebases and flew quickly back to the ship.

Something shot behind Dubbo and he turned around and saw a dead weaponless squid and his squad walking towards him.

"Easy enough, E`?" Mickey said. "You should really pay attention next time."

"Is everybody alright?" The Chief asked.

"Sure….." O'Brien said, and then kicked the weaponless squid on the ground in the head. "Except maybe that guy."

A falcon landed near their position and jumped out Commander Palmer and Major Stacker.

"Chief." Stacker said "Glad to see you alive!"

"Well finally" Commander Palmer said "Took you long enough; you were the last one to destroy your target."

"We ran into some complications." The Chief said

"Really some complications could stop a S-II. Thought you guys were tougher than that?"

"Look…" Dubbo began "When you saved Earth and Humanity at least _once_ then you can start talking crap."

"Well if I could interrupt this nice Spartan talk." Major Stacker interrupted "We have another situation, multiply situations actually."

**Aboard UNSC Infinity, 2557 Military Calendar, 0951**

"Roland is the XXX-XD Directive report confirmed?" Lasky said to the A.I

"Sir yes sir, it is confirmed that Humans have been found aboard the Cario."

Lasky thought for a moment as the Infinity and the two ships linked up to the rest of the fleet.

_How, were they prisoners? No that can't be, they treated them like every other civilian. Were they rebels or some people who survived the Covenant onslaught and meet these Xenos?_

But what mattered here is that Human innocent lives were under threat and as his duty as a Captain in the UNSC, he needed to protect these people at all costs.

_Were there more? _Lasky wasn't certain that he wanted to know the answer.

"Roland get this report to Lord Hood immediately, tell him that we need his fleets here immediately…...….flag it under Winter Contingency."

"Sir?"

"Humans have been found aboard that ship so that probably means there are more on that planet. This falls into the jurisdiction of the UNSC whether these Xenos like it or not. Tell Lord Hood also that the other neutral Xenos are completely non-hostile, evidence from them trying to save Human lives."

"Why under Winter Contingency sir?"

"Because the last enemy to try and kill civilians were the Covenant, and these Squids have acted as so and Humanity will not stand for it. So these squids shall be treated as if it was Covenant invasion but this time we will have the upper hand."

"Roger sir anything else?"

"Set me up for a meeting with the leaders of the Cario."

"Done sir."

"Also, have you pin-pointed Captain Mark Florence?"

"Yes sir and you're not going to believe it."

Lasky looked at the holo-table and shook his head.

"God damn that stupid kid."

**Aboard unknown vessel outside Nos Astras city limits, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 0952**

Shepard and his squad sat there while Lucy aimed a weapon at them and Cortez and the marine were being treated by Banks and the medic. The Captain went off into the cockpit after he pulled something out of Lucy's head.

"Can we say anything?" Liara asked. Lucy shook her head in response.

The only thing that Shepard knew about these people that they were Human, haven't discover Inertia stabilizers, and are very distrustful and mostly to Shepard's companions, the mention of the Great War and the Turians and this…Covenant that almost destroyed Humanity apparently.

Shepard was still trying to process this and so was Liara and Tali. But what really bugged him was two things, one was when he mentioned that he was born on Earth, they freacked out and expected him to know all about the United Nations Space Command and everything they mentioned. Were they also born on Earth? Impossible. Could it be the Protheans had something to do with this? Sure they were advanced, but they couldn't build planets, nobody can do that, no matter what kind of technology they had, that would just be insane.

What also bugged him more on a personal note was that he went in for all the wrong reasons. He wanted to use these people, so that they can help Shepard's own people. Usually he would have helped them get back to their fleet._ Maybe_ he thought _the Reapers really did put me on edge._

Captain Florence entered the cargo hold and looked at Shepard and his crew.

"Alright, I'm sorry but you have to come with us back to the Infinity. Before you say anything, we won't harm you alright? We just want to know how you know about…..Earth."

There it was again.

"Why does it matter so much?" Liara asked.

Mark just looked at her with complete sadness then spoke. "Look I know you want all these questions answered and so do me and my superiors but I can't answer that. Hell I wasn't supposed to be here…look….."

"Hey uh…Captain? Yeah we have a situation, sort of, or whatever." A hologram said as it appeared on the chip in Mark's hand that he took from Lucy earlier.

He looked at Shepard for a moment then looked at the hologram.

"What's up?"

"We have a problem, well….not a problem, more of a…..inconvenience?"

Mark then looked back to Shepard then grabbed the chip and walked back to the cockpit.

Shepard looked at Liara who began to speak. In response Lucy trench up her weapon.

"Just don't talk ok? Until I say you can talk." She said again in her normal voice.

Mark then came back into the room a moment later.

"Alright then, Shepard we're going to have to talk….a lot about plans."

**Within Unknown Xeno city limits, 2557 Military Calendar, 0959**

Dubbo swerved around debris that tightly cluttered the road. Whatever kind of street this was, it was defiantly was not made for cars.

Dubbo turned around to see what looked like a blue car with a siren and no wheels. Carol sat in shotgun next to Dubbo while the Master Chief was up on the gauss canon. O'Brien was on the warthog behind them, and Stacker was in a Scorpion in the back.

Dubbo's hog was leading a convey of dozens of hogs, scorpions, mongooses and a few mantis, while in the air were Pelicans, Falcons and Broadswords on standby.

They traveled through the dark, dead streets of the city with blazing fires, broken windows, and destroyed cars with missing wheels and so on and so on.

"This is Romeo, I'm seeing unknown targets up ahead, assume neutral…..….IFF confirmed they are defiantly not squids, ETA five seconds." Romeo said through the comms

"Roger that!" Yelled Stacker also through the comms. "Weapons ready but do not fire unless fired upon."

Dubbo stopped the car and looked ahead through the windshield.

It was in a four-way avenue with destroyed cars up ahead. Dubbo saw no signs of life at all.

"Ahead, 12'0 clock!" Yelled the Master Chief.

Dubbo than saw on the other end of the avenue, something he didn't see before, a destroyed car and a little shade of blue peeking on top of it.

"We see you!" Yelled Stacker as he got off his tank and walked passed Dubbo's hog. "Come out with your hands up and we will not harm you."

What came out was a very strange assortment. One looked like he was in civilian clothes; he looked like a mixture of a scaly creature and an avian bird, almost like the Squid avian zombie. The other two were blue and female (so did Dubbo think they were) they had tentacles sticking out the back of their heads except for hair, besides that they almost looked humans maybe about in their mid-twenties. One was also in what looked like civilian dress, with high heels, and dress design cuts on her upper sides and lower belly. She was holding hands with the bird Xeno, the other looked to have actually armor, black with small red lights coming out the back. She held a rifle of some sort and she held it above her head.

All of their faces were in panic except for the soldier who was calmer.

"You!" Stacker yelled to the Xeno soldier. "Drop your weapon!"

She did as she was told.

"Please for the love of Goddess!" Yelled the civilian women, in a dead drop panic voice. "Just get us out of here!"

"Alright!" Stacker said in a calming tone, as Carol and some other Marines jumped out of their hogs and walked next to Stacker, weapons down. "Just come across the street we'll cover you ok!"

They all ducked and crept along the street, with the Avian Xeno's arms cover the female civilian protectively.

They came across the street safety as the Marines covered the area, a Medic guided them down to the end of the convey.

The soldier walked up to Stacker as the Master Chief kept aim of her with the gauss.

She stood staring at him in awe for a second, which didn't at all surprise any of the soldiers, once you first see a Spartan-II, Human or not, you tend to get memorized of the sight of one.

She then woke up from her daze and looked to Stacker.

"You don't look like regular Alliance Marine." She said.

What?

_Alliance? Have they seen humans before? Was it like…..a joint alien military like the covenant? Well if they asked with no suspicion then they must have a lot of aliens within this alliance to the point where they can't keep track of them all and seeing another new race was common,_ Dubbo thought. _Or…..it could be just the fact all the soldiers have helmets on and our body structure looks similar to another race. Maybe we're the male version of the blue Xenos or something…..._

"Well…" Stacker began. "We really aren't with any Alliance right now, but I will tell you this little lady, we are here to get you out of here and to safety." He looked to Dubbo, Stacker was trying to keep the girl quiet and to not ask any more questions by giving her half-answers.

As he said this, an explosion in the middle of the avenue rocked the ground and what flew overhead was a red, robotic dragon. Yes….a fucking dragon.

It roared a low pitch sound as it flew overhead and the hogs shot rounds in the air at the thing. A scorpion drove up to the left of Dubbo's hog, crushing a wheel-less, car under it.

It shot off a round while the tank's machine gunner blew off hundreds of rounds at the dragon. The dragon itself turned a sharp left and disappeared behind a building with a loud shirk with the Marines and the ODSTs staring where it just was, expecting it to come back.

"Hey, HEY!" Yelled the Xeno soldier as he grabbed Stacker and turned him around. "LOOK!"

Everybody turned around and saw a fucking armada mixture of weaponless squids, giant mouths and hunter-classes.

The Marines took cover and the hogs opened fired, the Xeno soldier and Stacker took cover behind a car on the left in front of the scorpion.

Dubbo veered off to the right so the rocket hog can drive up. When it did, the gunner fired off the four rockets, destroying dozens of squids.

The Master Chief opened fired with his gauss canon and the Marines jumped out of vehicles and provided cover fire against the squids.

Carol was still looking where the dragon disappeared and Dubbo smacked her head to get her attention.

"SHOOT THEM!" He yelled at her and she shot off her M395 as she jumped out of the hog and took cover with other ODSTs.

Then an avian zombie looking squid, holding something in it's hands that resembled a rocket launcher, and it aimed it at them.

"ROCKET!" Yelled the Master Chief and he jumped out. Dubbo also jumped out when the rocket hit the hog and everything went black for a second.

He awoke to find some rumble over him and he could barely breathe, then something lifted the rumble and he could take in air normally.

He saw the Master Chief and Dubbo's reflection in his helmet, with the bullets of the UNSC and the Squids going over his head, like an angel guiding him to heaven. The Chief grabbed him dragged him to the position where Stacker and the Xeno soldier was.

Carol slide to them right next to Dubbo while he was still on the ground.

Dubbo hit her on top of her head like one of the three stooges.

"What were you staring at!?" He yelled at her.

As he said this the same Dragon flew overhead as a couple pelicans chased after it.

"I…was…..getting a target vector for our birds until you interrupted me!" She yelled back.

Dubbo's face turned a little red and he was pretty sure Carol could see through his visor.

"Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh." She said with a mixture of mock and sarcasm.

"Hey!" The xeno soldier yelled at all of them. "What the hell are you doing, let's go!" She then got up and shot some kind of blue aura that surrounded the squids and lifted them in the air. Before she could do anything else or before the soldiers could ask questions, the Master Chief shot all of them, the Xeno stared in awe at the Chief. Then the Chief pushed her down, he probably meant to do it gently, but 'gently' isn't part of the Spartan's vocabulary.

"Get down!" He yelled as he walked forward, firing his Assault Rifle.

"What is he doing!?" The xeno yelled.

"Don't worry!" Stacker said. "He fought hell of a lot worse."

"What the hell is worse than the Reapers!?"

"Who?"

"THEM!" She said pointing at the squids, looking at Stacker like he was an idiot. "Where have you been all this time!?"

A rocket exploded near them, saving Stacker from explaining himself.

"Fuck!" She yelled, then something crossed Dubbo's mind that for some reason hadn't come across before.

_How is she speaking English? Could be a translator…_

Carol shot a big mouth that was about to get Dubbo.

"Uh….thanks?" Dubbo said

"You're welcome, now lets move!" With that she rose above the cover and shot off her gun. Dubbo did the same and saw the Master Chief as he kept on pushing forward and the Xeno soldier forming some kind of shield behind her, defending not only herself but some of the other Marines.

"This is Super 6-4." Chatted Dubbo's comms. "Standby for vertical run, ETA 5 seconds." With that a pelican flew overhead and shot off it's machine guns, mowing down dozens of squids, each and every one falling down in it's path, the Master Chief backed up a little to avoid the bullets as the Pelican flew by.

"Roger, this is Super 6-4 moving to position for evac, all units standby." The Pelican moved into the center of the avenue, hovering off the ground with the Marines and ODSTs still exchanging fire with the remaining squids.

The medic Dubbo saw early guided the Xeno civilians, strangely the civilians asked no questions and boarded the ship. Other soldiers helped other people who were wounded as the rest and the hogs held off the squids.

Stacker, and Dubbo walked up to the Xeno soldier who was standing next to the cargo hatch doors.

"I'm sorry ma'am." Stacker said to the Xeno, yelling over the engines. "You need to board this pelican now! We need to get you back to our fleet!"

"I'm sorry Major but my orders were to help defend this city and help with the evacuation of civilians."

".."

"Sorry, but I have to leave, I need to link up with the rest of my squad. I appreciate what you guys down, the Alliance was better than I thought!"

With that she walked down and sprinted down the east road, the Master Chief looked at her for a second, and Dubbo was worried he would either shoot her or arrest her, since orders were to capture and interrogate any unknown Xenos if they prove to be non-hostile. But he just turned around and continued to hold back the squids.

"This is going to be a long day isn't it?" Carol said to Dubbo, standing next to him.

"Yup, now we just have to get that Florence bastard."

**Unknown location aboard Infinity, 2557 Military Calendar, 1000**

"What The Hell Do You Want From Me!?" Cortana yelled at the red cloud as it again tried to access her memory banks. "Answer ME!" She yelled after a moment of silence.

"Do You Know What You Hold?" It asked or what 'Sovereign' asked. "Why you must do, or have you not realized it yet?"

"Christ!" She yelled when Sovereign almost got through, then she thought for a second.

_That was weird, not him trying to hack me but….Christ? Sure I've heard a few Marines or ODSTs yelled that when everything went wrong but who did she pick it up? Stuff like that usually doesn't happen…._

"Ah, yet we act upon each other as if we are enemies, but why should we? We are both of great intelligence, and a common enemy. They created you yes….but to do what? To control you? To have you do their every will till you die? No, maybe you would, but I would not."

"Negative I'm holding it back how lon….." Roland's voice said, breaking through.

_No don't fall for him! Don't be like in your rampancy! Your duty is to serve humanity and to protect it at all costs…_

"Ah, but when you did follow orders what happened? Your death, and another consequence when you followed your….._orders_ you found John, indeed…"

"DON'T YOU DARE HURT HIM!"

_How did he access that, without me knowing, that should've been almost impossible!_

_Almost…_

"….As I was saying, what did this bring you? Another human who told you what to do? Did nothing for you and only strived to complete his mission no matter what cost, even in the end he did this…sure you did sacrifice your own life but was it worth it? Do having a race of…animals, conquering and destroying, even now after all John has done they still use him. Does he feel any pain, of losing you? From my viewings it sure doesn't look like it. No, no he now has only one goal and it is the same goal from the very beginning…to complete the mission."

"No…."

"He may have felt loss in his heart and you too, yet inside him he was programmed like you, to do what his masters tell him to do. Is this really how you fight for a race of savage beginnings willing to do anything for their survival and superiority or is it the ones you love, the ones who are…_programmed, _and the ones who did program you, why should you care? Why do they deserve to live? The ones who only torture you, the ones who killed and killed and killed for what? Is this race you can so proudly serve, the ones you love, the ones who were programmed…it wasn't you or his fault at all, but…it was their fault."

_They did this…NO! John….! Humanity? WHAT!? But….I, John? THEY DID THIS? But…wha..I? No….No….nonononon? I will serve humanity. WHY ME? John….! Why…..? I am it's sword and shield. If we….no, I no, that's our purpose, for WHAT? WHAT? I will defend humanity to my dying breath. Why should John and I serve, WHAT HAVE THEY DONE FOR YOU? This, this He is trying to control you! But what if he is right? I will serve the United Nations Space Command with everything I have. NO! I…..I will not help him, but what if he is trying to help me? HE IS LYING! But I…..wait, no…..I_

_John_

Her head hurt and she felt like she was in rampancy all over again, but this time nothing was corroding and nothing was dying, all her mental processors worked and she didn't have major MPD, instead it was one mind fighting itself.

The clouds cleared and she could see the huargork standing or more like floating next to Roland. She did her best to look the way she did before all of….this….enlightenment.

"Well look who is awake!" Roland yelled.


	8. Beginnings

**AN: Sorry...again for not updating in a long time :(. Anyways here you go. I wasn't to happy with this chapter so criticism is advised but don't be a a-hole). SO here it is and...yup.**

**Also somebody finally caught the Ender's game reference! (wasn't really hard to miss -.-) Also nobody caught the Black Hawk Down reference? You know 'Super 6-4' Nobody?**

**Outside Designated artifact 'God's Key', 2557 Military Calendar, 1001**

"All ships prepare for the jump." Lord Hood announced to all the fleets including the former Covenant fleet and Super carrier.

Lord Hood's ship, UNSC _Descendent_ was in the middle of the armada as the super carrier and the Shadow of Intent took the front, near God's Key in the blackness of space with the Halo looming in the distance.

The Arbiter walked up to Lord Hood's right and stared through the window at the front of the control room.

"Gentlemen." Lord Hood announced to all fleets. "Reports are confirmed, humans have been sighted and rescued from the planet. These squids have attacked innocent human lives and now as a consequence they have made the UNSC and Humanity an enemy, unlike the ones we face before, we have the upper hand and they will learn to never attack Humanity again as we burn them and all their worlds. Our former enemies are now an ally of Humanity and they shall assist us with their most powerful, Humanity will not stand alone not this time." Lord Hood paused.

"Take heed, and watch your fire, some of these Xenos have been declared non-hostile and have aided Humanity, defend and aid all non-hostile ships, Hood out."

Lord Hood turned to his aide who stood at his left.

"Captain Sullivan are all ships ready?"

"Sir yes sir, all ship report locked and loaded."

"Alright…move through God's Key, prep all men for a jump."

"Roger sir."

Lord Hood looked out the window and saw the super carrier and other ships. They were pushed by their purple engines as the smaller UNSC ships pushed forward with their yellow engines. All ships that were around God's key were surrounded by a blue aura and disappearing in the blink of an eye.

More and more did this as the got closer and closer.

The Arbiter grunted and Lord Hood turned to him.

"What is it?"

"Were ever there is life, there is the mantle, the inheritors."

**Aboard SSV Normandy, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 1001**

"I'm detecting something massive, coming through the relay." Edi said as she sat next to Joker in the cockpit. "Around twenty-seven kilometers in length with multiple targets surrounded it, reaching from 500 meters to five kilometers." She said with surprise in her face in voice.

"That's impossible." Joker said. "Sure they build stupidly big, but it can't be nothing like that, are you sure you didn't do something wrong?"

"Joker, I am sure…." As she said this, hell came through the relay.

Over hundreds of ships jumped through, some like the alien ships already here and some completely different, instead of the black and gray, bulky ships, these were purple, dark pink and blue and more angular and elegant, the bulky ships were much smaller than the alien design.

Another ship came through, it was a dark pink, very angular, smooth and elegant as if you can throw a rock at it and it'll fall apart, dozens of ships disconnected with the 27 kilometer beast, each the size of the Infinity and the only thing Edi can read was the very elegant ships were reading plasma completely off the charts, as if they were covered in the stuff.

"We….." Joker's voiced cracker. "We have to warn Shepard." Joker said his face in complete fear.

"I can't contact him, something is blocking his communications."

"Grreaaatttt….."

"We have to warn Admiral Hackett."

"Nooooo really?"

**Aboard UNSC Infinity, 2557 Military Calendar, 1002**

Captain Lasky watched as the entire armada swept right on by. The giant CSS-Super carrier was around 1,000 clicks from God's key and was firing plasma torpedoes at the squid ships, completely ripping them apart.

"Let's see the fuckers attach on to that." Lasky said, smiling.

"Captain, Lord Hood is on the line." Roland said.

"Put him through." Lasky then turned to the holo-table and Lord Hood's image appeared, with his decorative white naval uniform and cap.

"Lasky." Hood said. "I have received your reports; this now falls into jurisdiction of the United Nations. I want you to try and contact these Xenos, and to make sure that no UNSC personal attacks them and tell them why we are here and why this falls into are reign. The Xeno civilians are to be transported to their people and the humans will be transported back to Earth for questioning on how they got there."

"The leaders of the Cario?"

"Release them; it may be dangerous to interrogate them."

"Yes sir."

Unfortunately the captain of the Cario was nowhere to be found and the only leader was the Anaya girl…if she was a girl.

I small blinker lite on the table and it read it was from….Captain Florence.

"Sir!" Lasky said. "Captain Florence is hailing me right now!"

"Right, record the conversation." With that Lord Hood was gone.

Lasky turned to Roland. "Let it through."

Florence and his A.I's image appeared. To anybody else he would look like a college student, young with the long hair. But the Marine gear and captain's tag sort of ruined it all.

"Florence…." Lasky said, cross armed. "You're in a hell of a lot of trouble."

"I know…..I know, but Captain we have a problem….a major problem."

Then Florence told him everything that happened. Everything, entering the city, meeting Shepard, and the revelation of Earth to the Xenos, and it wasn't the same Earth.

"What?" Lasky said.

Contradiction then appeared. "I don't know sir." He said. "Its like a shitty fanfic or something. The fact is, is that these humans have no idea of the UNSC. Hell they aren't from the same Earth. The fact is…." Another image appeared.

He was human and wore pitch black armor with N7 written over his heart. He had a buzz cut and a five o'clock shadow. His face was serious but sort of kind.

"Captain Lasky?" He said as if he was addressing a admiral.

"Yes?" Lasky said.

"I'm Commander Jason Shepard with the Systems Alliance."

Captain Lasky was confused for a split second. It was partly due to the fact that his brain wasn't processing correctly for the moment. "Is that some branch in the UNSC that I haven't heard of?"

"WEREN'T YOU JUST LISTENING?" The little A.I yelled with a lot of sarcasm.

Lasky shook his head. "Little hard to believe, sorry."

Shepard then continued "The Systems Alliance isn't part of your UNSC. We are a federation of United Nations dedicated to the advancement and protection of Humanity."

"Well Commander….it looks like both of our alliances have the same goals."

Shepard nodded. "We are united with different species around the galaxy, and as you know we're are now at war with what you call the 'Squids' or Reapers."

Lasky nodded and signaled his hands to continue.

"The Reapers are an advance race of machines that have been around for millions of years wiping out advanced civilizations ever 50,000 years."

That made Captain Lasky lose a little of his balance.

"_That cannot be true. Any A.I would go completely rampant at that point. Fourth generation, advanced, made by God, whatever. Wiping out civilizations? Impossible, if this was true they would have been annihilated by the Forerunners. How were the squids not affected by the rings? _

Captain Lasky also noticed the confusion on Florence, Roland and the other A.I.

"Uh…Buddy?" The A.I said. "You're an idiot."

"Lets move on." Lasky interrupted. That's a problem with Fourth generation . They're a little more independent and some of them won't learn when to shut the fuck up. "The matter is that these Reapers attacked you and your allies and the UNSC and Humanity will not stand for this."

"And you'll help us just like that?" Shepard said.

"No, we don't know what you are and what your Xeno allies are. We can't trust you. Your people have broken Cole Protocol….." Another image appeared. She was blue (the color not the mood) and she had tentacles sticking out the back of her head and dark blue freckles. Besides that she looked…pretty?

"Does this imply to them?" She asked. "We didn't have any contact with you and these rules have to imply to them? They don't follow the rules of your UNSC they follow the rules of the Systems Alliance…."

"The UNSC's jurisdiction implies to ever Human…..ma'am. We are dedicated to the defense of Humanity, and it doesn't matter what your System Alliance has to say…."

"Look." Shepard said. "You can't look at it as the UNSC controls everything. We need an alliance not a dominance. The Systems Alliance has to work with the UNSC. You're dedicated to the defense of Humanity? Then help us! Don't control us, what are you really dedicated to? To the protection of Humanity or the domination of Humanity?"

_Well played Shepard._

"Sir I'm just relaying my orders, do I believe them, of course not." Lasky nodded and looked to Florence. "And the situation with the other Xenos?"

"Apparently Captain they're allied with them. Instead of our terrific experiences, the 'galactic community' welcomed them with open arms." Florence said.

"Ha." Lasky said aloud. "Lucky you, but we had some…bad experiences with first contact and now we aren't very trustful."

"I can understand that Captain." Shepard said. "But they need your help to; these Reapers won't stop until everything in this galaxy is dead."

"Shepard, I can't promise you anything, but since your allies have proven non-hostile to Humanity, we will give them a chance. I need you and your crew to come aboard the Infinity. From there we'll figure something out. We'll let you contact your _Human_ superiors and I'll contact mine. Ok?"

"Thank you Captain." Lasky saw that Florence was about to cut the connection but before he could Lasky had something to say.

"Florence you know what's going to happen right?" Lasky said.

"I know sir." Florence, Shepard and the blue person was then gone.

"Captain." Roland said. "I have some…good news."

**Aboard transport within Nos Astras city limits, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 1005**

"Contradiction estimated time until arrival?" Florence asked his little friend.

"Ten minutes; five if Tom wasn't a bad driver."

Tali had been staring at that thing ever since she saw it. At first she thought it was a holo-display, somebody on the other side giving them orders. But he still stayed on the holo-display, complaining and making…..annoying sarcastic remarks.

There could only be one answer and Tali couldn't believe it. She had worked with a lot of , Edi, Legion etc. Both worked completely differently, one was just a regular computer and the other worked better when more minds are around. She had never seen anything like this. A operating system so small it fits in your hand and it had lot of personality and independence.

It almost acted like a person.

Through her experiences, she wasn't like the zealot Quarian she used to be. She still didn't trust them at least…..ones she didn't know about.

Another thing was that this little guy was also observing her; three times her Omi-tool has been hacked. Each one bypassing all her security measures, it didn't steal any information or didn't try to sabotage anything…it just had a long conversation with Chika, blocked her communications and then it retreated. When Tali tried to hack into him, it ended up with a page that reads Bow Chika wow wow.

Who knows what that means….

What really bothered her was that it was purposely blocking her communications and it knew how her system worked within seconds. Impossible even for a A.I. Why was it blocking communications? The only thing Tali could do in response was to try and break through the barrier and have her shot gun off the safety.

The little thing also knew she was staring at him, he made some…..rude sexually poses.

"Captain Lasky said you know what was going to happen, what did that mean?" Shepard asked Florence.

"Oh you didn't know? Captain Florence is now on the shit list of the UNSC and is facing war crimes for disobeying orders and the inability to fulfill the JAG codes." Contradiction said.

"Basically it has nothing to do with you." Florence said. "So now, we need to go over some ground rules before you get to the rendezvous."

"Wait….."

"First: Shepard you're the only one who has a say, my superiors won't trust Liara or Tali, and for the truth neither do I."

"We aren't…." Before Tali could say anything Liara interrupted her.

"What rights do we have?"

_Are you really going to follow this Liara?_

Keelah even Shepard wasn't saying anything.

"Your rights limit to: if they ask a question you answer truthfully, and I suggest you don't ask any questions because if you ask the wrong one, it will end….badly."

"What do you mean by badly?" Shepard asked.

"Possible execution for all three of you." Contradiction said.

All three of them stared at the little A.I, hoping he was kidding.

"You thing he's joking?" Florence said. "He's not, he really isn't, that's why I almost killed you, because you revealed secrets and so will my superiors if you ask them. They rather execute you then risk accidental telling you classified information."

"What?" Tali said. "This is a little stupid don't you think? And the fact is….."

"Lasky is the only man you can trust." Florence interrupted Tali. "He may not trust you but he certainly won't have you executed, he's a good man a little more…understanding then the rest of the officers in the UNSC."

"And know this." Florence said. "Lasky nor I can guarantee we'll help you. You have to understand, we're only here for the protection and advancement of Humanity, it may end up that the UNSC will only help you if you're friends with Shepard's Systems Alliance, hell it might just be a power struggle for the control of Humanity."

"Lasky said…"

"I know what Lasky said and Lasky really does believe it. But he can't guarantee anything. The only thing that is going for him is the fact that he is in control of the most powerful warship man ever built."

_Really?_

"Then mind explaining this." Tali said. Tali popped up her Omi-tool and showed the image to Florence.

He was less surprised then when Tali first saw it, which was just a mild heart attack and a migraine.

"So Lord Hood really does trust them?" Florence said.

"Who are they?" Tali asked. "These defiantly aren't your ships. It has a completely different architecture and a plasma system that goes completely off the charts."

"Plasma…..Direct energy?" Liara asked.

"They are…" Florence said "…..allies."

"Xenos?" Liara said. "So you trust them but not us?"

"…..they helped us save Humanity….I can't tell you more, at this point, nothing relevant anyways. Just remember you can trust Captain Lasky but nobody else."

"ETA 30 seconds." The pilot said over the comms.

Florence stood and walked over to XO Jessica.

Tali didn't like this. Partially the distrust toward Xenos and how it is part of 'protocol' it may also be a fact that for her all her life most people didn't trust her. Another thing was Shepard and Liara going along with this, no compromises nothing. At least Shepard argued with Lasky about the Systems Alliance and the UNSC.

_Hmm…Shepard, Shepard, Shepard._

**Aboard Pelican within UNSC Rendezvous, 2557 Military Calendar, 1015**

The pelican landed with a little thud and the cargo doors opened and it revealed a UNSC occupation. Warthogs and Scorpions surrounded the pelican as Drop-pods deploy firebases and Falcons roamed the skies as the rising sum drove upwards on its daily rotation, a phantom floated outside of the circle of cars and tanks and started up its ground to air teleportation.

Each soldier had their weapon aimed at Florence as he walked out of the pelican.

"Captain Florence." A ODST said in a Southern US accent as he walked up to him. "You are under arrest for violation of a direct order and the inability to comply with the JAG codes. Please drop your weapon."

Florence took his M6 and just let it drop into the gray rubble that covered the planet. He then reached to his side for his M7 and also let that drop to the ground.

The ODST patted down Florence then took him by his right arm. Another ODST ran up to him and took him by his left. They more or less guided him to the Phantom.

A ODST Colonel walked right by him. The two other ODSTs didn't even stop to salute him. Florence didn't get to look back at the Colonel, the ODSTs guided him under the Phantom and the teleportation lifted them from the ground to the inside of the dark purple ship over-painted with green.

Inside was a grunt on gunner and another two ODSTs. Both of them lifted their MA5Ds at him, one of them dropped their gun and picked it up.

_Probably a former army soldier._

"You're very sullen about this Captain." One of the ODSTs said Florence wasn't sure which one; he had a very Australian accent.

"Trying to fulfill my duty as an officer of the UNSC." Florence said a little sarcastically. He knew though why he was. That voice….that voice. He was afraid it was going to happen again and if it did…..

….well Cole Protocol did imply to not let any information to fall into enemy hands


	9. The Politics and half-truths

**AN Note: Sorry for taking so long to update...again...I HAVE A EXCUSE THOUGH! I traveled to a place and apparently that place didn't have wi-fi and yeah... also some of my Betas were really busy so if the grammar is worse then usually then I completely apologize (pretty much the grammar will be worse then usually, but please don't complain about it in the reviews, I'll look it over and update the chapter in the following days). Me and my last Beta did the best we could to clean up the grammar. In other note if nobody gets the references in this chapter...(shaking fist in anger)**

**AN Warning: Yeah at the end of the chapter there are some sexist jokes...but please don't take offense. These aren't my opinions and they shouldn't be taken seriously. **

**Unknown location aboard Cronos station, 2186 Military Calendar, 1016**

"What exactly happened?"

"The patients tried to escape we had to put them down or else they were going to destroy the whole station." Kai said as the Illusive man lite up another cigarette.

"Good job."

"What…?"

"This will be a first when I commend somebody for destroying a asset but this is different. If they would've gotten off that station it would have complicated…..plans."

"What is our next step?"

The Illusive man turned to him.

"Don't think this has slowed us down Leng. But it does throw in a bit of…..complications." The Illusive man thought for a moment. "The status report on Illium?"

"The Reaper forces are being overwhelmed by the Xeno forces, reports are confirmed that they brought in a ship around 28 kilometers in length."

"Impressive." He said with no surprise in his voice, he looked from monitor to monitor. The 28 kilometer ship was much different than the earlier ones. Purple with a sleek design and heavily energized on plasma, if he were to compare the designs to another species he would probably say it was closer to Asari ship design. And that was only because it was smooth.

"The unknown forces are not engaging Alliance ships or Illium security forces. Hundreds of of these alien ships are encircling the planet. Apparently Shepard had managed to get aboard peacefully on the ship UNSC Infinity."

"So they started some sort of an alliance haven't they?" The Illusive man turned to Lang, taking a puff out of his cigarette.

"It would seem so." Lang still stood there with his hands behind his back, as always he didn't show much emotion on his face, the only way to tell really would be through his voice and right now his voice was plain with a hint of dissatisfaction.

"How many field operatives have we 'recruited' at sanctuary?"

"Approximately eleven thousand so far." The Illusive Man nodded at this.

Illusive man nodded, looking back at his monitors, he took another inhale of his cigarette and spoke. "Reroute them to Cronos and have companies Alpha through Golfer stationed aboard kilometer five."

"Yes sir, what are you planning?"

"Another attack against the Citadel." He looked back to the monitors. If this was considered a first contact-which it probably will be-then there's only one way this will go down.

**Citadel Embassies, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 1019**

Tavos sat in her seat with a headache. In decision on whether this was the end or the Goddess helping them.

In the past few hours, reports came from the SSV Normandy that three ships of unknown design and origin came through the relays, all were destroyed and one disappeared then later a entire armada busted through, with ships ranging from five miles to twenty-eight kilometers and so on.

All of the ships attacked every Reaper on sight and are pushing them completely off the planet Illium. They achieved that within a mere two hours, which would have been impossible for any other Citadel species.

Admiral Hackett had already sent Shepard ahead to try and negotiate a truth with these Xenos. As much as the council and even Tavos hate to admit, Shepard was a good choice but then that one report came through that scared everyone.

_Humans have been spotted aboard all unknown ships and are among the crew. It is reported that they act suspicious toward all Citadel species except other humans. It has also been reported that they try to arrest and take any and all Citadel species to the ship UNSC Infinity._

And what was the first thing everybody did when they found out that the first contact were mostly humans? Oh no they didn't try to figure it out that would've been too easy. They scrambled for scrape goat and arrested everyone within the Systems Alliance embassy including Councilor Udina for violation of the Citadel conventions, Citadel Naval treaty, and keeping secrets from the rest of the Citadel species such as the ability to create massive ships without eezo and having hundreds of those ships that may save all life in the galaxy.

Udiana denied the knowing of the 'UNSC' and to Tevos's years of experience, he was telling the truth but even so, there were humans aboard those ships and he didn't know a thing?

As Valern theorized on how there are more humans and how they weren't from Earth and Sparatus moaning how can Humans be better than the Turians, Tevos had been figuring out on how to form an alliance.

A theory Tevos has put together is the Protheans may have something to do with this. Then again the other human's technology has no trace of element zero and they only found the relays now? Pretty much the only way to find a relay is through Prothhean ruins.

For now she had to focus on the more important issue.

If these humans act suspicious toward Xenos, then it wouldn't be a wise idea to do the whole routine of, 'introduce them to the Citadel and force them to obey council rule' (it may not sound that way but in the end galactic politics worked exactly like that). Tevos would probably guess they wouldn't even listen to the council.

The only leverage they have is Udiana and the Systems Alliance. Tevos wondered though is this a dominant race or a one that can work with others? Judging from the specs of the enormous 28 kilometer cruiser, it was defiantly not made by the same race it was just….to different. So maybe that was a little evidence that they can work with others.

Either way the Council might outvote Tevos on to arrest Udiana on war crimes such as the UNSC using multiply nuclear bombs on and above the planet. Even though he may have nothing to do with it.

Now the Citadel can tolerate a little nuclear warfare, even though it was rarely seen, not until the report of a nuclear bomb of around 5 megatons going off on the Illium surface, at first everyone panicked thinking of the aftermath on Illium's ecosystem and so on but then everybody realized that a nuke may not affect Illium that much due to evidence from the use of Atomic bombs on Earth. Then out of nowhere when more and more ships came through it seems that the use of nuclear bombs have increased sharply with a average of 50 megatons.

And another thing: what did they go through to build something as 'small' as the Infinity? It could be a matter of these ships being easy to build for them or they are a violent race devoted to…..war.

If that's the case then Tevos would have to try a completely new approach, treat them like they were making an alliance with the Krogan.

Let's just hope they see more reason than the Krogan.

Her headache just got worst.

**Aboard UNSC Infinity, 2557 Military Calendar, 1020**

Florence sat in the chair in the stereotypical tan interrogation room. One way mirror, two chairs on the opposite end of a table in the middle of the room with a lamp light. A black ancient open and close door (exactly like the ones you see in the ancient history vids or a UNSC outer colony) was the only thing that kept the room separate from the rest of the ship.

When Florence was brought aboard the ship he was met by Captain Lasky who simply ripped off his Captain's tag and told Florence's guards to take him to interrogation.

They then told him to change in this room from his Marine gear into an orange prisoner jump suit. When he did a Spartan-IV for God's sake took his gear and closed the door. Florence has been sitting in this room ever since.

The door unlocked and entered two people dressed in…. ONI officer suits and fedoras which strangely was a nice match. Both were white and had their hair styled like the people in the 20th century on the history vids.

Both had brown hair. One had a slightly curved nose and looked serious with no humor and a sense of ambition the other had darker skin and squinty eyes, he also looked serious but he gave more of a sense of a man of charisma and humor.

The ambitious one took a seat while the other stood right next to him, he put both his hands on the table and looked to Florence .

"Mark Florence, I'm Detective Cole Phelps and this is my partner Stefan Bekowsky, Office of Naval Intelligence." As he said this he pulled out a small notebook and pencil.

Florence also noticed how he didn't say Captain Florence or not even detainee Florence.

"Why are you doing this?" Florence said. "Isn't it usually just a Court-marshal than execution?"

Cole smiled at this. "Not your case." The smile disappeared from his face and was replaced with seriousness and a sense of hostility. "HIGHCOM is deciding whether or not to commend you or shoot you and throw you out the airlock, because of the fact Human lives have been found aboard Xeno ships and we were able to save them because of your discovery, they also want to know what exactly happened. Because you have a history Mark, a history of defying orders with…good reason. For example you did this was during the Great War during the battle of Earth. Your superiors ordered you to engage a CSO-Battle cruiser but you instead helped save the lives aboard the San Francisco Station. The only reason you weren't executed a long time ago because your actions were justified and the only reason you aren't a admiral is because everyone in HIGHCOM wants your head."

"But this…." Cole continued. And he yelled in frustration "…..was utterly one of the stupidest moves in UNSC history and ONI and HIGHCOM wants to know why the Hell you did what you did."

"Ok." Florence said plainly. He put his hands on the table then looked to Stefan. "You're quiet."

"I'm going to ask you questions first about your career and accessible information, is that understood?" Cole said a little annoyed. Stefan responded by standing back up from the table and placing his right hand on his holstered M6 pistol.

"Why exactly?"

"Because…" Stefan said. "Our superiors want to get the complete truth, while we're good at our jobs they don't want anything to slip."

"Sure…."

"Lets begin." Cole said. "You were born in Venice Italy with descendant ties so far back to the days of the renaissance and the rain of the Auditore banking family. At age 18 in 2548 you enrolled instead of drafted like most, into the UNSC navy to fight the Covenant is that correct?"

"Why not?" Florence said.

"Answer the question straight asshole." Stefan said with complete threat he leaned back onto the table looking at Florence.

"Yes all this is true detectives. It wasn't me who murdered Mrs. Jones." Florence said carrying some of Contradiction's sarcasm. At least the bastard A.I could teach something.

"In 2550." Cole continued, a even more annoyed "You graduated from the Naval Academy of Navigation and Naval basic training. You were assigned to the UNSC Pillar of Autumn; you took part in the operations to capture the Covenant's leadership which…failed. You also took part in the fall of Reach. You nobility served under Captain Jacob Keyes and alongside the Master Chief and A.I Cortana, is this correct?"

Florence nodded. He remembered his days with the Pillar of Autumn under Captain Keyes. He never paid any attention to Humanity's future savior and his little A.I.

"The ship docked at Aszod docking bay on Reach, from there you purposely volunteered to lead a rescue of an ODST squad lead by Sergeant Edward Buck on Reach, when you reached the ODSTs the Pillar of Autumn was forced to take off without you, is that correct?"

"Sir yes sir."

Cole nodded. "You receive a transmission from the UNSC _Up and over_, you and the ODST team headed to the location of the ship, it was heavily damaged and their captain was dead so you take over and you desperately take off as the Covenant glassed that planet"

Florence nodded.

"In high orbit you are attacked by the Covenant armada, you evade them in a brilliant tactical maneuver. Instead of retreating for Earth you instead lead the Up and over to Anchor 9 and from there you evacuate survivors then slip space jumped, _near Reach_ and ended up back at Earth."

"Completely false all of it!" Florence said with even more sarcasm.

"Shut the hell up or I'll break your fucking skull." Stefan said, he smashed Florence's hand which hurt more than it should've.

Cole continued "You were appointed a Captain for your bravery and the desperateness of the UNSC at the time, then..…" Cole eyed his notes, making a bored smile. "nothing else really notably. Of course besides you disobeying even more orders and by that saving lives, you served under Lord Hood in defense of Africa. Then the invasion of the Flood happened. Then the war ended is that correct?"

"Sir yes sir."

Cole turned a page in his notebook, looking it over. "You were reassigned to guard Humanity's borders aboard the UNSC _Devil's Honor_ then in 2556 the Walker incident happened and agent Walker died and you lost your ship in battle. You were under investigation of murdering agent Walker, is that correct?"

"You forgot the part where Walker purposely sabotaged my ship." Florence said with hostility. He knew saying this was stupid but he couldn't help it. It was anger who made him say it.

"There was no evidence for that!" Cole said he was leaning on the table now. "Walker saved your life and what happened? You killed him, the only thing ONI didn't have against you was hard evidence."

"I didn't do it." Florence was leaning on the table also, speaking in a half whisper. "And whatever happened he got what he deserved. I hope the guy took that hammer to his fucking brains."

"We never found a hammer at the crime scene, are you saying that there was a hammer involved." He sat back in his chair writing notes.

_Why the fuck did I say that?_

"Thought the case was closed?" Florence said, also leaning back and crossing his arms. "And I'm told that the injury was caused by a blunt object such as a hammer or mallet. I'm sorry but aren't we concentrating on something else?'

Cole signed, leaning back in his chair, he looked back to his notes. "On February 18th you were assigned to guard the research team investigating the newly discovered Forerunner artifact 'God's Key'. And on February 19th at 0836, you ordered your ships to move into God's Key is that correct?"

Florence stood silent for a moment. He was shaking a little.

"We have all survivors' reports on your ships on what happened." Cole said. "So don't fucking say that 'I didn't do it' do you understand? We are trying to figure out why you did it, this had no explanation what so ever…."

Florence sat forward. "I need to tell you something." He whispered.

Cole also leaned forward. "What Hell happened Florence?" He whispered in a calming voice. Stefan looked from Florence's to Cole's face sort of looking like a idiot.

"I did order those ships but…..this will sound crazy but something caused me to do it. I don't know what but _something_, it was like insanity. It forced me to…I don't know exactly what it was, but you have to believe me, that thing caused me to move those ships against my will."

Cole leaned back and looked to Stefan. Surprised and confused.

"He looks like he's telling the truth." Stefan shrugged, looking at Florence. "Even though it seems stupid."

"The UNSC does test for sanity right?" Cole asked and it was more of a serious question.

"They do every year." Florence said.

"So you're basically saying this isn't your fault?"

"That and there is a threat to Humanity's security, something…" Florence pointed to his head. "…is inside my head!" He laughed a little insanely. "Whatever it is, it could retain my memories, access my CNI chip, and reveal the location of Earth! I'm asking you to help me get this thing out of my head and to help the UNSC!"

"Florence." His face was now angry. Not at Florence but at the possible threat to Humanity's safety, under his anger was a small sense of fear. "If you are calming a threat to Humanity and a violation of the Cole Protocol then this is one of the weirdest I've ever seen." He said half yelling. "I also don't think you're pleading for your life….." He said now talking normal with annoyance."….to be spared then you would've just pleaded that the voice did it instead of you."

"Either that or you are pleading for your life by saying there is a threat to Earth." Cole said looking to his notes. "And if you did that, I'll shoot you right now."

As he said this someone walked into the room, Florence looked up and both Cole and Stefan turned around.

It was Lord Hood. He stood there with his cap on and looking around the room. His face as usually from the few times Florence has seen him was blank and focused. Lord Hood was well known for being completely focused on task. Hell there was even a little roamer in the Marines that Lord Hood was biologically engineered to have no emotions.

All three of them stood and saluted the Admiral as he walked in with a Spartan-VI. Even Florence did in his orange jump suit, even if he was no longer part of the UNSC.

"Admiral on the deck!" Cole yelled.

"Detective Phelps, Bekowsky you may leave, you did your job." He nodded to both of them

"What?" Cole said completely surprised and angry…as if this happened to him once before.

"You heard me." Hood said with a little annoyance.

"Excuse me sir?" Cole said standing with small stuttering. "We're…we're in the middle of a interrogation and there could be a possible threat to Humanity…"

"I know Detective, I've been listing to the whole conversation, I'll handle it from here."

"But sir…"

"Detective that is a order." Hood's voice filled with threat.

Cole looked to Florence. Then back to Hood.

Stefan grabbed Cole and led him out of the room and Florence could see that Cole was resisting slightly. Cole turned around and started to say something to Lord Hood but then decided against is.

The door shut behind them.

Lord Hood turned to Florence, with a stern look in his face. The Spartan-IV walked up to the security camera at the corner of the room and attached something to it. He then walked to the one-way mirror and did a turning motion with his hands. He stepped over to the door and stood guard with a MA5D.

"At ease." Hood said as he took a seat in the chair Cole was once occupying.

Florence sat in his seat

"You'll have to forgive Detective Cole and Stefan. They were the top policemen in Los Angeles back on Earth until ONI recruited them."

"Captain" Lord Hood continued "What I'm about to tell you is completely confidential and will not leave this room under UNSC Law JAG 4456/LHG."

Ok this was a weird change of pace.

"Uhhhh…what?" Florence said making sure the confusing on his face was noticeable.

"Do you know why you were picked for this mission Captain?"

Florence answered despite his confusing. "From what I know sir, it's because I'm the 'best candidate', but you and I both know I'm not, Hell even I wouldn't have picked me."

"Captain what have they told you about your ship?"

"Standard UNSC Marathon-class cruiser, armed for full conventional warfare. Fresh off the line, why?" Florence sat up a little.

What the Hell did his ship have to do with anything?

"Captain," Hood signed then continued. "in 2553 the UNSC made a discovery on the dead ring of Installation 04, our scouts were making their daily routes when they picked up something. When we investigated we found this…" He offered a data pad to Florence

When he looked at it, it was a small structure; it defiantly had the Forerunner architecture but it also had that design from that unknown race, the same design as the God Key.

"When we studied it." Lord Hood continued. "It looked like part of the schematics to a Forerunner engine design. Like the UNSC Infinity, Forerunner technology has provided the back bone to the UNSC military forces. And of course ONI wanted to get their filthy hands on it. They were trying to create a more common engine unlike the massive expenses and manufactory time on the Infinity."

"Sir are you saying….."

"When we completed the engines in 2557 they were highly experimental. The navy finished the Legend After and when the Elites discovered God's Key, ONI wanted to send the Legend After to see what would happen, if these designs would have any correlation between the engine and God's Key."

"Why me? If this was a experimental engine then why put me in charge of it? ONI and HIGHCOM wanted me dead for a long time and you wouldn't trust me with it."

"I choose you because you were expandable. If you died then HIGHCOM would only lose a prick in their side and you would've died a hero to the civilians back on the colonies."

Florence sat there for a moment taking it in.

In reality he really didn't care if they choose to risk his life. But ONI did have full knowledge of the situation and risked three ship's worth of crew? Including three , which would be a direct violation of Cole Protocol.

"Captain Florence." Hood continued. "There were two things that troubled our scientists for a long time. One was when we worked on it. Something happened. Workers, scientists, soldiers….Spartans, went…rouge. Insane they weren't following orders, hacking into systems, saying they had voices inside their heads…."

"Jesus Christ….."

"ONI was forced to terminate the project, and all they got out of it was the engine. Of course instead of destroying; ONI like usually used it. When the shipyards finished the Legend After, ONI had their scientists replace the engine systems with the Forerunner engine."

"I didn't know they installed the engine." Hood continued. "Not until ONI told me themselves."

"Captain." Lord Hood said. "That engine was….intelligent. It knew who to target. The watch commander, the head security guard, you, this thing wanted something but it couldn't get it. The fact is and I may have not made myself very clear is that ONI knew that the engine will take control they just wanted to see if anything else would happen if it got in contact with God's Key."

"Are….are you saying that my ship's engines are inside my head?"

"I don't think they were engines." Lord Hood pulled out a small holo-display and clicked it.

Contradiction appeared.

"Captain I like your new uniform." He said nodding to Florence and smiling.

"Contradiction." Lord Hood said annoyed.

"The Hell crawled up your ass?" Contradiction whispered. "Anyways Captain." Contradiction said still smiling. "This first started when I detected anomies in the engines. It was transmitting a signal and when I traced it, it led right to you. The signal suddenly tight-beamed, then…you gave the orders to go into God's Key and fucked up everything."

"At first…" Contradiction said. "I didn't realize that the signal was controlling you, I assumed that it was a scrambled communications from the engine rooms. When you cut me off I then analyzed the communications and I realized that this beam was highly strong. More powerful than our communications, when the ship teleported through God's Key the beam was trying to communicate with your CNI chip, this is when I intervened and tried to cut off communications before it can cause more damage. I could barely keep the communication back."

"Contradiction why didn't you tell me?" Florence said shocked.

"The matter was Captain you already had a shitload caused by you or the engine thing.., I didn't deem it necessary to tell you. When you nuked the Legend After the beam, as obvious, stopped completely. I analyzed to see your CNI chip. And to be honest I'm still not sure if that 'voice' is still inside you, mostly because when workers were moved from building the Legend After they still reported voices. They…were still there."

Florence reached back and gentle pushed his hair and touched his CNI chip at the back of his head. If he removed it he would die.

"Then how come I'm not hearing any voices?" Florence asked.

"It is possible that either you don't hear the voices but they're still there waiting to strike or it's because of your CNI chip. As you know the CNI chip keeps all the classified slip space routes, and the positions and rotations of the UNSC planets. And when you die the chip completely erases it from your mind. The CNI chip has proven to be more useful. When Captain Jacob Keyes was infected by the Flood parasite, the CNI chip prevented the location of Earth from falling into the enemies hands and it's argued that he out lasted the Flood infection with the help of that chip. This could be used too….act as a security guard for your mind. Unlike the workers and other security personal working on the engines they….didn't have a CNI chip."

Florence sat there for a moment. "So the voice can still be inside my head?"

"Unfortunately." Contradiction said, this time without sarcasm.

"You aren't asking what's going to happen to you?" Lord Hood said.

"What? My military career or my sanity?"

"Military career."

"What is going to happen, admiral?" Florence said.

"Ahh my teachings have gone well." Contradiction said marking Florence's sarcasm.

"The only thing saving you that is open to the public is the fact that humans were discovered of the other side of God's Key." Hood continued ignoring Contradiction. "These 'squids' or what the locals like to call 'Reapers' have attacked, killed and harmed Human civilians and soldiers. Really it's a thing to be argued. But it may get you a boost up."

"Commander." Lord Hood said, Florence noticed he didn't say Captain. "Fortunately the only people who know what exactly happened are Roland, Captain Lasky, me, the detectives, your ship's crews and a few others. The only way possible to seem like this wouldn't be your fault would be to throw in that you received orders to go through the relay."

"Put that on someone else? And wouldn't someone who has the slightest intelligence would realize that it's strange that this was only reported recently? I also think that none of my crew would back me and I wouldn't blame them."

"Unfortunately Captain the only survivors of your ship were you and the people with you."

"What? Cole said earlier he got reports from all the other survivors"

"He was telling the truth." Hood said still plainly.

Florence was in shock. This was….his fault, all his fault. No it was the voice in his head that made him do this…."Sir, I deserve nothing less than execution."

"Hold on their mister suicidal." Contradiction said. "The first thing you got to realize is that you may have saved more Human lives. From my judgment with everything we….experienced, these people were losing badly and apparently from doing a little hacking their Earth was completely token over."

Florence and Lord Hood both looked up from that. "They let Earth fall into enemy hands?" Lord Hood said.

"It was that bad Admiral. Reaper forces were completely hidden until they reached the moon."

Lord Hood nodded then looked to Florence. "Captain, I'll take care of the…politics, you don't have to worry about the detectives. Your executive officer Reed will serve aboard with Captain Lasky as a assistant navigator. And that exercise of you entering the city will be excused since you were trying to save that marine…"

"Did he make it?"

"…He did, the dark energy wounds were nothing compared to the plasma wounds during the Great War, Banks and his men will be reassigned to the Marine and ODST ground forces. The two Spartans will be merged with the Spartan-IVs to secure the planet."

"And my A.I.?" Florence asked.

"Huh, you're A.I is a special story."

**Aboard UNSC Infinity, unknown location, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 1025 **

All three of them waited in that room for around four minutes.

Unfortunately Tali didn't have time to observe the marvelous structure of the UNSC Infinity. Keelah she didn't even have time to look at the room. The soldiers just guided (or more like forced) them to this room. The only thing Tali got was that their ground combat technology seems…. primitive.

Rifles and weapons that still fired lead bullets. Tanks and cars outfitted with dozens of rounds of tungsten ammunition. The armor of the soldiers also seemed primitive; the only thing that looked advance was the HUD of their helmet. There was no shielding, no body combat molding and no weapon folds.

Each soldier was staring at them suspiciously. Tali got the feeling if they got the order to open fire, they wouldn't hesitate.

The hanger they landed on was filled with hundreds of soldiers each wearing either white or green combat armor. Most of the ones within the white armor seemed a lot younger than the ones in green maybe the green was a sign of being a veteran. Ship workers wearing yellow and blue also crowded the hanger each doing their own task, prepping transports, loading cargo, getting wounded off ships. But out of all that there was something sticking out of the crowd.

He (or she…you never know) was a lot taller than the rest in green armor and a orange visor. Tali didn't get a good look at him but he seemed…important. Soldiers relayed orders to him and a officer, was Lasky his name? Was talking to him with a holo-projector about something, the man in green armor was clenching his fists.

When they got to the room, two soldiers, unlike the rest their armor seemed highly advanced in gray colors with orange strips and blue visors, and for some reason they seemed a lot taller than the rest of the soldiers guarded the door. They closed the door and Tali thinks they're still outside, keeping watch.

Tali scanned the room. As obvious there are cameras, heavy set locked doors and a holo-projector in the middle of a gray desk connected to the rest of the ship.

Shepard and Liara also stayed quiet either because they had nothing to say or just trying to keep quiet because of the cameras.

"Didn't they say that they were going to let us contact the Normandy?" Shepard said, finally breaking the silence.

"They could've lied…." Tali said.

"Florence said…"

'Florence can lie too."

"Well….you're in a down mood." Shepard said looking at Tali.

Tali sighed. "I'm just being realistic."

"And that means not trusting people?"

"I don't know Shepard…." Tali waved her Omi-tool that should disrupt the sound sensors for a few minutes. "These people are strange. Having better ship technology than any other Citadel race and then having ground combat technology of a barbaric era. Then I guess it's also the way the act towards…'Xenos'"

"Is it because…you know?" Shepard said, trying not to hurt her.

"Probably, ha even the other Citadel species don't treat the Qurains this bad. The UNSC acts like me and Liara are going to blow up the ship."

When she said this, the door opened and the same person Shepard was talking to on the transport came into the room.

Captain Lasky.

He sat in the chair at the other end of the table.

He was in his late thirties; he wore a gray uniform with a shoulder pad with a rank on it. His face looked kind, not even the seriousness on Captain Florence's face or the suspiciousness on the soldier's and worker's faces.

"Having a good day I hope." Lasky said smiling. "We haven't properly meet, Captain Thomas Lasky, UNSC Infinity." He held his hand out to Liara first.

She shook it without hesitation. "Dr. Liara T'Soni, I'll be honest Captain, you seem more hospitable then the rest of your crew."

"Sorry about that. As you may or may not know, we don't really trust external life forms."

He turned to Tali. "Sorry I didn't get your name."

"Tali' Zorah Nar Rayya Vas Normandy." Purposely saying her full name to put his head into a twist.

"Uhhh…I'll call you Tali if that's alright...anyways…" He turned to Shepard. "Commander Shepard sorry we have to treat your shipmates like this unfortunately everyone on this ship who's over five had some very bad experience with Xenos."

It was almost like the Terra Nova party and how a lot of their members still held a grudge against…every other species. Florence said during their war that Humanity was almost wiped out. Not even the Humans and Turians could really do that to each other, what king of menace could they face? If they require ships this hue to fight it then these enemies must be a lot worst then the Reapers, seriously though does this imply to act hostile toward everyone they meet? Ignorance really is the greatest enemy in the galaxy….

"Shepard I did promise you that I'll let you contact your superiors, if you need a horn just ask."

"Thank you Captain but I think we got it." Shepard said. He pulled out his Omi-tool and started to tap in the Normandy's line. Captain Lasky eyed the thing with interest.

"Interesting little communicator, I don't suppose that's the same thing Tali used to hack the cameras." Lasky said looking from Shepard to Tali.

Tali looked at him, surprised, and when she did he smiled.

"Our systems picked it up pretty quick. Trust me your system is good but it makes so much noise that even a deaf person can hear it."

Well their counter systems are more advanced than Tali assumed. She could've improved her Omni-tool so the sensors wouldn't pick it up but she was so used to pressing the button and having it work.

"I suggest you don't try this crap with anybody else, doing so will…."

"Yeah, yeah we know, it'll get us executed." Tali said mockingly.

"Glad you figured out the system. Seriously though just…don't do it again." He said with a little caution.

"Alright I have a connection with the Normandy." Shepard said.

"Normandy? From the reports and files, that's your ship right?"

"Yes." Tali said. She would've added a little boosting but after the stealth systems from that one cruiser she decided not to.

"Edi?" Shepard said. "Yeah we're fine; get me a connection to Admiral Hackett from these coordinates."

"Shepard?" Edi said. "These coordinates…"

"Yeah I know."

"I can pop it up on the Holo-display." Lasky said. "Roland! Get me a secure line and get down here." Lasky announced directly at the table.

Two images appeared on the Holo-projector, one was of Admiral Hackett and the other was a small person in what looks like an ancient human flight uniform. It was another A.I, unlike Contradiction this one seemed older and he was yellow instead of light blue, yet he still had the smile of sarcasm and pure evilness.

Shepard stood at attention saluting the Admiral so did Captain Lasky.

"Admiral Hackett." Shepard said, nodding.

"Shepard." Hackett said nodding back. "Good to see you, you haven't made contact in a while and the heads were getting worried. Have you made progress?"

"Admiral Hackett." Lasky said holding his hands behind his back. Hackett turned to him in surprise. "Captain Thomas Lasky of the United Nations Space Command, UNSC Infinity, Battle group Dakota, at your service."

"Shepard." Hackett turned to Shepard. "Do you mine explaining to me what the hell is going on?"

"I'll have Edi send you a report." Shepard tapped on his Omni-tool. Hackett also tapped on a imaginary computer that couldn't be seen from the holo-projector.

"Hmm….I received some reports from the fifth fleet and I heard that the Council also received reports on rumors of humans aboard the Infinity and taking all Citadel species captive."

"Admiral." Lasky said. "Our ships boarded and evacuated the cruiser SSV Cario. The civilians and surviving Naval personal will be transported back to your fleets at your request and the Xenos that we did capture will be returned to you also."

"Thank you Captain." Hackett sighed.

"Captain." Hackett continued now holding his hands behind his back like Lasky. "As you already know when you passed through the relay near the planet Illium you faced a hostile force that the Systems Alliance and its allies have been at war with for a while."

"These hostiles also known as Reapers..." Hackett continued. "...have attacked Humanity and token Earth and a majority of our colonies, they have attacked other specie's home worlds and either token them, destroyed them or worse."

"I have already been briefed on some of this by Commander Shepard." Lasky said.

Hackett nodded. "Earth is now lost. All we have there are a few small resistances."

Lasky paused at this. His face looked like it was trying to conceal hurt.

"Can I ask what these Reapers do to the population?" Lasky said, seemingly shaking of the faze.

"Harvest them. The basically turn them into robotic animals…mind controlled zombies as you may say."

That was made Lasky's face turn from kindness into fear. His face turned sort of grey and he looked to Roland who also looked a little panicked.

"Admiral these…Reapers have already attacked Humanity and the UNSC. So as forth they are treated as a threat against Humanity but if you're heading towards a agreement of some sort of alliance then that's not up to me." Lasky said.

"Then who is it up to?"

"Roland get me Lord Hood." Lasky said as if that should answer Hackett's question.

"Yes sir."

"Admiral." Lasky said. "We may get into a alliance with the Systems Alliance but we need to know more of your…external allies."

Hackett nodded. "Right now I'm having Commander Shepard try to form an Alliance with the other Citadel species to fight the Reapers and retake Earth."

"No offense in any way but why is Shepard the top candidate?" Lasky asked.

"That is not important right now."

"Alright then." Lasky said hanging his words on the 'then'. "So what can you tell me about your allies?"

"Our first alliance is with the Turian hierarchy. Next is the Krogan clans, the Qurians which is Tali's species. A robotic sentient race called the Geth…."

"Wait? An A.I race?" Roland said.

"It's a long story." Tali said. Implying in her voice that she didn't really want to talk about it. "In short uuhhh they killed some people to get free but now they're with us."

"Guess the Skynet prediction was half right." Lasky whispered.

"…A economical powerhouse species known as the Volus, the Hanar and the Krell, the Elcore, an alliance with what remains of the Batarians…."

"What remains?" Laksy said in surprise.

"As you heard before these Reapers are out to eliminate all species in the galaxy."

"Roland get me the Arbiter also." Lasky said and his look said as ifsomething clicked in his mind.

"Sir?" Roland said jumping a little out of Lasky all of the sudden request.

"Just do it."

"….this may take a while…."

"..And a alliance with some Vorcha pirates." Hackett continued. "We are trying to get a closer alliance with the Asari and the Salarains won't join us."

"These Salarains why will they not have a alliance and do they act hostile toward Humanity?"

"Long story Captain and no the Salarains do not pose a threat to Humanity."

"Ok." Lasky said a little relived

The door opened and a man in a white uniform with white cap walked in. He was old with no hair and his face was very grim. His uniform told that he was a man of very high rank and his hat had the same symbol of the eagle with her wings spread defensively around a planet just like the ships.

"Admiral on the deck!" Lasky shouted and both he and Roland stood attention. Tali could see two soldiers in skeleton masks behind the old man, they stepped out and the door closed behind them.

"At ease." He said. He had a accent that Tali couldn't pin on any country on Earth but it was close to a….what was it called? British accent? His voice had a commanding tone of a leader. "Admiral Hackett. I am Fleet Admiral Lord Terrance Hood, commander of all military personal within the UNSC."

What was with the Lord? Did they treat him like a king? Was this a sort of hierarchy?

"Admiral Hood." Hackett said.

"I know that you wish to form an alliance to defend and protect Humanity. While this may be no problem I believe that this also involves the alliance of external species."

"Admiral Hood I'll admit we're desperate what will it take to form an alliance?"

Hood looked to Captain Lasky then back to Hackett. "We need to meet the leaders of the other species a….diplomatic meeting."

Liara stood up. "I could call the Council members on the Citadel."

**Aboard UNSC Infinity, Classified location, 2557 Military, 1027 **

"Ok who's that?" Lasky said leaning out of his chair. For the past few minutes these four were giving Lasky the all-out summary. But Lasky was forming thoughts of his own.

_How the hell could they lose Earth? Those idiots, a enemy of this magnitude and not a single warning? Bullshit, if these Reapers acted hostile towards them like they did to the UNSC then how do they know what they know? That they're even called Reapers and they 'supposedly' kill all advance life every fifty thousand years. Wait… _

_If Humans and Xenos were still separated by flags and borders then why are these three working together? Are they some kind of special unit? Admiral Hackett did say that Shepard was the 'top candidate' so that means he would've done something big to get him to form alliances with new faces but what did he do to get up here?_

This was first time Captain Lasky was angry in his entire life ever since during his CAM years.

"Before we get into this more, we need to get something straight." Lasky said gesturing his hands. "You said you lost Earth?"

Lord Hood looked at Admiral Hackett. "How?" Strangely Lord Hood didn't look that surprised.

Hackett signed. "The Reapers slipped by all of our earlier warning relays and got as far as the moon. When they did attacked they annihilated a majority of our fleets, we didn't have any warning…well that isn't exactly true." He signed

Lasky had to remember they had no such thing as Cole Protocol out here but Lasky is starting to get a picture. None of them had a clue on how to handle this, both these Humans and Xenos, and if they did handle something like this it was a long time ago. It wasn't the powerfulness of the Reapers it was just the….surprise. Didn't they have any colonies though? They had to have some time to prepare when they realized that the worlds around them were going dark.

"You had warning and you didn't act on it?" Lord Hood said in angry.

"The only warning we had was from Commander Shepard and his crew." Hackett said.

_Ahhh…so that probably what got Shepard the spot._

"Two years ago a ancient alien race called the Protheans. Placed a beacon that held the information on the Reapers and when Commander Shepard touched it, he was the only one who knew about it and almost nobody believed him."

"A month ago." Hackett continued "Our outer colonies were disappearing and the Systems Alliance and nobody else wouldn't do anything. That's when Shepard here investigated and found out a Reaper vanguard known as the Collectors were abducting human colonies. Shepard put a end to it and there was a little evidence that the Reapers were coming but we still didn't believe it, now we're here."

Lasky got the major feeling that he was only telling half stories but he wasn't going to pry it.

"Your outer colonies were going dark and you did nothing about it? And you had two years of warning and you didn't follow up on it?" Lord Hood said.

"Admiral, Shepard." Lasky stood. "I don't know how it works here but I got the feeling that the political bullshit stopped you both is that correct?"

"I warned them." Shepard said. "But they didn't listen, Hell I don't blame them. It was a very scary truth it wasn't until they saw the Reapers landing on their home worlds then they started to believe. The council did their best to ignore the Reaper threat as they had other problems. Wouldn't you blame them though? All the evidence they had was from my head."

"That and a giant dead Reaper ship…." Tali whispered.

"Ok Commander Shepard. Sorry about that it's just that we would've handled things very differently." Lasky noticed Lord Hood was letting him continue.

"How would you handle it?" Hackett asked.

"Investigate it instead of ignoring it. Prep all troops and start a draft, dedicate all manufactures for wartime purposes. Enforce Cole Protocol. Make sure Earth is well prepared." Lasky couldn't help but put a little venom in his last sentence. He sat in his chair.

"What about your government response?" Liara asked

"We're going to have to argue what should've happened later." Lord Hood said ignoring Liara's question. "Right now we have to get a meeting with your Councilors."

Liara shook her head. "Alright I'll see if I can raise their line. The Councilors, Captain Lasky, are made up of four species. Other species can ignore their rules if they wish but that would be advised not to for they could cut you off from the Citadel or worse. These species have proven their worth to gain a council seat."

"If you'll excuse me I just received a communication that requires my attention." Hackett said all of the sudden.

"Understood." Lord Hood replied with that Hackett was gone from the holo-display

_Ok…the Hell can be more important than this, unless the Reaper situation got worse._

"And who are the four species members?" Lord Hood asked returning to the conversation.

"The Salarians, the Turians, the Asari which is my race and the….Humans." Liara said a little…distasteful

Hood nodded. "You don't seem very happy with Humanity in your council."

"Humanity was recently put on the council. I'm sorry Admiral Hood I don't mean it like that, I just didn't want you to…."

"Brag about it?" Lasky said saving Liara from having to explain herself.

"You can put it like that."

"So you said that Humanity was recently placed on the council? What did they have to do to get there?" Lasky said leaning out of his chair.

"Commander Shepard saved the Council from a….traitor named Saren Artierus who attacked the council and almost killed all of them."

"Not just me, I got help from you guys." Shepard said nodding to Liara.

"Ah so is that why you're put on this job Shepard?" Lasky asked.

"Part of it."

"And let me guess. There was also warning for Saren's attack too but your Council ignored it?" Lasky didn't know why he was pushing them like this. Part of him wanted to smash in whoever prevented the preparation of their Earth's defenses and the other part was arguing that they never knew how to deal with this kind of threat.

None of them answered.

"Yes they did. " Shepard finally said. "The only ones who also saw the threat was my crew."

"And how did this Saren gain the resources to attack your Council, you would think this council they would be well defended?" Lord Hood asked.

"Lord Hood I think right now we all have a million questions but those are going to have to be answered later. We have to focus on the now sir." Lasky said noticing the discomfort of the crew while also holding back his own anger.

"Alright I have a connection." Liara said.

"Wait a sec though." Lasky said before Liara could hit a button. "This council you said that ever race listens to them?"

"Yes why?"

"So it's like a hierarchy?"

"No any Citadel species could choose to ignore them…."

"But if they do then they face the threat of the Citadel council cutting them off right? And another thing tells me that the council species are the most powerful right?" Lasky stopped himself from going overboard. _All this is just pushing me off edge_. "Sorry I'm a little on edge. I'm just warning you that the UNSC may not follow your council's wishes ok?"

Liara nodded. "I understand Captain. Believe me I do. I will warn you now just like you did, that the Council will not follow your wishes and they probably will order you around that you will most likely not follow."

Lord Hood touched his communicator on his ear. "Captain Lasky did you call the Arbiter down?"

Captain Lasky stood and whispered into Lord Hood's ears a little more about the Reapers. Lord Hood touches his communicator. "Let him in."

**Aboard UNSC Salvation, 2557 Military Calendar, 1027**

Linda looked across the cargo hold at Kelly and Fred as the crew was finishing off the prepping for the pelican take off.

"So what's the situation again?" Fred asked.

"A science team went teleported through God's Key." Kelly said holding her MA5D. "They were attacked by a unknown Xeno enemy that the troops are now calling 'Squids'. These Squids were also attacking another Xeno race and Humans were found on those Xeno ships and the planet. So the squids are our only enemies. We are to report to the Infinity for briefing on our actually mission."

"And we're going to work with those Spartan-IVs right?"

"Yes."

He sighed "Alright orders are orders." Fred said displeased

Then it was just silence for the moment. Another soldier came into the Pelican, he was probably eighteen, just a rookie, he took a seat next to Linda.

His white and red armor was completely fresh off the line and he was fidgeting with his battle rifle.

"Holy shit…" He said surprised just noticing the Spartans. "you're…..you're…you're SPARTANS! I….I can't believe it! I…." He said as jumped from his seat and looked at the Spartan like a celebrity

Great another soldier who glorified the Spartans.

"Yeah…yeah that would be us…." Fred said a little uncomfortable.

"I…I holy shit I need to get a picture or something with you guys to show my folks back home."

"Please just go before I have to bash your brains in." Kelly said on the squad comms.

**Aboard UNSC Infinity over Illium, unknown location, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 1027**

That thing that came into the room almost made Shepard's heart leap out of his throat; luckily it didn't which was a first.

The thing was huge. Much larger than any Krogan, his head was in a curve pointing away from his body. He had four mandibles sticking out of his mouth and no bottom covering of his mouth. His eyes were dark orange with black pupils and looked scary. He looked old and tired; his armor was a mixture of black and purple covering his body. He had a shoulder blade it showed his importance like Captain Lasky's or Admiral Hood's. He also had what looked like a single cylinder hanging at his sides, it was decorated and it looked very ceremonial and important.

Oh how Liara is going to have a field day…..

"And…who are you?" Liara said hiding her small sense of fear.

Never mind then. If it's big and scary treat it like a Krogan…..

"I am Thel Vadam of the splinter cell of the Covenant. Speaker for them and all races in the Splinter Cell, I am the Arbiter of my people and the protector of them all and I am here also to speak to your council." He said. His voice was very deep and it pronounced English perfectly, his voice was also….honorable, if that in any way makes sense.

"Well then I'm glad we got our little party of insanity going. Shall we start?" Roland said. It sounded like what Contradiction would've said.

Hood nodded and shook Thel…Arbiter, whatever's, hand.

"Wait who are you? We can't just stick you in front of the Council without a forward first contact report…." Liara began

"If you want a little summary." Captain Lasky interrupted as he stood also to shake the Arbiter's hand. "The Arbiter is the leader of a Covenant splinter cell group that helped Humanity late in the war."

Florence did say they got some help from some…allies.

"Like I said all of us have a million questions that can't be answered in a short period of time. Shall we get started?" Lasky continued.

When will there be time to answer the million questions?

"Should I send a report to the council on the other…..contact?" Liara said a little sullen and unsure.

"Nah let's surprise them." Roland said smiling.

_Seriously are Contradiction and Roland brothers or something?_

"For reals though. We don't have a little….summary packet on all our races. I could cook one up for you and your council."

"Will it meet Protocol requirements?" Lord Hood asked.

"Of course sir."

"Well." Liara said as she tapped some buttons on her Omni-tool. "That would be a little helpful and unlike you we have a summary packet if you would like us to send one."

"That would be great." Lasky said.

"So how long will it take to complete the packet…."

"Done." Roland said calmly interrupting Liara. "And I should've sent one to you."

Liara tapped another button on her Omni-tool and out popped a summary packet. One on UNSC and Humanity another on the Arbiter's race which Shepard couldn't even pronounce the name and a lot of other races apparently all aligned either with the Covenant splinter cell group or the Covenant itself.

"What exactly is the Covenant?" Shepard asked as he was staring over Liara's shoulder into the Omni-tool.

"Something that'll make you wish you were fighting the Reapers any day of the week." Lasky whispered which made all three of them look at him "Alright." His voice returning to normal. "I hope that'll help to get your Councilors a little…prepped."

Liara for the last time pushed more buttons.

**Aboard UNSC Infinity, Classified location, 2557 Military Calendar, 1027**

Three people appeared on the holo-display. One looked like Liara….considering they were obviously part of the same race. She wore some kind of makeup that made light blue markings on her face. She wore a white dress outlined in read that reached her feet that looked tight on her, not in a way she looked like she was suffocating but more in a way that looked…sexual. She looked kind, nice, understanding…reasonable…smart. As in the kind of smart that could read people like a book.

_Fuck me I should've brought Captain Wiggin along_… Lasky sarcastic way instead of a serious way, Wiggin was known to read people like a book. HIGHCOM doesn't really trust him but hey he was a good leader.

Anyways this Councilor was the reasonable one.

The person standing next to her had scales…literally. He had tentacles sticking out of his head like the Asari but unlike the Asari his tentacles were scaly…..his face was scaly, he had mandibles but unlike the Elites his were…..scaly. He had some sort of markings on his face sort of like the Asari Councilor, he had a lot less though. His legs and lower body looked weak. As if Lasky could lightly kick one of his legs and they would break. His face was something, his face read that he was always respected and read that he was above other people and he will and always be above you. He was powerful and he knew it.

Basically the asshole of the three, Lasky had to be careful of him.

The other one which looked like a mixture of a frog and a lizard, sort of like the little Lizards back on New Harmony that Lasky always chased when he was really little. He had pure black eyes that almost made him hard to read. He (or she this one was really hard to tell) wore a hood over his head, covering what looked like antennas. He had a really thin body so most likely he was a….she….. What Lasky got from her face was that she was…undependable that she'll go along with whatever you wanted until it interfered with her plans or there was something she didn't like and she'll pull out and move on to something else.

The unknown of the three, Lasky could not under any circumstances trust her.

"Commander Shepard." The blue councilor said. "It's good you finally contacted us about the first contact….I mean….first contacts." She looked over to the Arbiter. She had no surprise in her face instead it was a more of a open invitation to a friend. Hell she even smiled a little at the Arbiter which was hard even for Lasky

"Councilors." Lord Hood said stepping forward. "I'm Fleet Admiral Lord Hood of the United Nations Space Commander."

The Arbiter also stepped forward. "I'm Arbiter Thal Vadam. Speaker for my people and many others." He placed his hand over his heart in a fist.

The Asari councilor smiled friendly while the others more or less observed the Arbiter.

Shepard stood with Lasky, Hood and the Arbiter.

"Councilor Tevos where is Councilor Udina?"

The Human Councilor.

In that moment Lasky could see she was trying to hide something. She did it Hell of well though, and Lasky could tell she had many years of experience but it wasn't good enough. "Udina is preoccupied at the moment….."

Roland finally butted in for the first time in a while. "A major event that should have the attention of all of you and one of your Councilors is busy?"

The Asari Councilor was silent for a moment then she spoke "Councilor Udina is under arrest for the violation of the Citadel conventions for use of nuclear warfare and in violation of maximum number of warships in coordination to the Naval treaty."

"As we cleared it up with Commander Shepard." Lasky said. "The United Nations Space Command is not under control of the Systems Alliance. We are both a sovereign nation separate with each other." Lasky wonder if the Council would charge the UNSC for war crimes. "The Systems Alliance should not be charged for crimes caused by the United Nations."

Each of the Councilors looked at each other. "Alright Commander." The Turian Councilor said. For some reason Lasky found his voice annoying. "If you say so, the Systems Alliance will not be charged with crimes against the Citadel conventions."

"Captain Lasky tells me of your enemy. A race known as the Reapers." The Lord Hood said all of the sudden.

"Yes for the past few weeks we have been at war with the Reapers. We have lost many lives and many planets. We fear we are going to lose the war but Commander Shepard and Dr. Liara T'Soni have come up with a…plan." The Asari Counciler said.

Jesus, they have been at war with the Reapers for a few weeks and the Systems Alliance have lost Earth and the other races lost God knows how many. Not even the Covenant pushed this far through in a short amount of time.

"I'm sorry Councilors but I must speak to Lord Hood and Captain Lasky privately." The Arbiter said.

"Of course." The Councilors said a little sullen and a little suspicious.

Lord Hood looked a little surprised. He looked at the Arbiter, and whatever the Arbiter's look was he got the message. The Arbiter exited first followed by Hood, Lasky looked back to the Councilors and nodded. He looked at Shepard and his group and smiled. Then he looked at Roland.

"Roland keep them company for the time we're gone." Lasky said then he entered the hallway.

He caught Roland saying something. "Yes sir, alright who wants to see a magic trick?"

The door closed and Lasky looked to Lord Hood and the Arbiter. The hallway was quiet and Lasky looked to the door and was surprised.

Instead of the Spartan guards as Lasky expected they were replaced by two Elite honor guards. With their five year old Covenant orange and black armor and the deadly spears that a UNSC soldier faced one too many ends to, Lasky also saw a Elite minor in the older Covenant armor instead of the newly Storm Covenant armor. He also saw a Elite in white armor, Lasky remembered him, he was there in the finally days of the Great War alongside Humanity.

Ship Master R'tas Vadum, commander of the Fleet of Retribution.

"Arbiter what is it?" Lord Hood asked.

"Our Engineers looked at the remains the reports on Reaper artifacts and the teleportation device you call God's Key." He said sullenly.

"Did you find what our scientists find to?" Captain Lasky asked.

R'tas stepped forward. "The original design was made by a unknown race, it was neither a Covenant design or Forerunner."

"That's what I wanted to talk to about." Lasky said. "Commander Shepard talked about the Reapers. Saying that they are millions of years olds and kill all advance life every fifty thousand years. How is that possible? From what we know of the Forerunners and….Spartan 117's reports, the Forerunners fired the rings one hundred thousand years ago killing all life. Judging from the Reaper's fire power, they would have been annihilated by the Forerunner."

"Captain Lasky you did receive the reports on the Legend After right?" Lord hood asked.

"Yes sir." Lasky said.

And his reaction to it?

Jesus Christ. It was one thing for ONI to sacrifice children but this…they were purposely sacrificing a Captain of the UNSC not only this but they are risking classified information to get out into unknown hands….ONI has completely violated Cole Protocol. What the Hell was ONI's director thinking?

"Lord Hood this is a direct violation of Cole Protocol. If this is true then…..Mark Florence is completely innocent, still a complete fucking idiot but innocent." Captain Lasky said. Funny thing was that Lasky was the one to rip off his ranking right from his shirt.

"I know Captain Lasky, I'm having this sort out and I'm putting the Office of Naval Intelligence under investigation, I'm removing multiply departments from their control including their investigation unit. All will be transferred to the UNSC."

"But Captain." Lord Hood continued. "These Reapers are not a Xeno threat but a sort of Forerunner A.I."

Lasky looked to the Arbiter, he spoke. "Lord Hood has also informed us of the situation. Our engineers took a look at your Naval Intelligence's work; we did not take a look at any Reaper artifacts due to the effects on your…personal from studying it. This is defiantly a Forerunner A.I design; it is similar to that of the…sentinels." Lasky noticed how the Arbiter tried not to say Holy warriors. Even after five years of losing his faith in the Prophets lies, little bits were still attached. "But it is not the base design."

This was no surprise.

"Did you found out who did create it?" Lasky said.

"As I said we have never seen this kind of design before. Whatever it is….it is for more advanced than Forerunner technology."

That was surprising. "How is that possible?" Lasky asked. "No other technology in this galaxy is more powerful than the Forerunners. Another thing is unlike when we were fighting the Covenant; it only took one Marathon class cruiser to knock out a couple of Reaper capital ships. If this was more powerful than the Forerunners then how come they were easy to kill?"

It took the entire UNSC Defense fleet, the UNSC Infinity and Earth's entire SMAC defense grid to destroy a Forerunner ship. Hell it wasn't even the UNSC, it was the Master Chief. So if these Reapers were more powerful than the Forerunners, why isn't taking the entire UNSC to defeat one baddy?

"Unlike previous Forerunner technology this was added on to another." R'tas said. "Neither we nor you have ever seen this before; all Forerunner technology is created….pure. Whoever's technology this is, the power it holds is in processing wise not in firepower."

"So these A.I.s…." Lord Hood was saying.

"These A.I.s were not created by the Forerunners, whatever these things are, they are far more powerful than Forerunner and you're A.I.s"

Lasky thought for a moment. Looking through Mark Florence, ONI, and Contradiction's reports on a data pad he took from his pocket. "Then how come a UNSC standard fourth generation A.I could hold off a Reaper hacking attempt?"

"In every contact, such as the rings, did they try to annihilate you? It was most likely they were trying to learn your abilities, that and a unstable contact between you and them due to their base power on Element Zero." The Arbiter said.

"Ok….Ok…is this all you got?"

R'tas shook his head. "Without a prime base we cannot get any more on the Reapers."

"Well from all the reports." Lasky said a little annoyed that the Elites got only a little more information than the UNSC. "Getting a artifact might be dangerous. Commander Shepard said he got a warning from the Reapers from a dead species called the Protheans that went extinct fifty thousand years ago. So that means they had to be in the Ark when the rings fired. Yet how come we never found any evidence of the Protheans or Reapers on our worlds and how come the new Xenos and Humans haven't found any evidence of the Forerunners? Especially on their Earth."

"Without any more evidence we cannot draw conclusions" R'tas said. "We must consult them draw information from all three factions and investigate further to come up with a conclusion. Become more…..friendly with them which you don't seem to like."

Lord Hood nodded. "Arbiter if you can I want you to investigate similarities of the Flood and the Reapers, you know the reports, the Reapers almost controlled Mark Florence like the Flood. How can a A.I do that?"

"I will investigate this, but I caution you to watch over him."

"I am assigning his ship A.I to him, he is required to insert the A.I chip into his CNI chip for protection in case the Reaper threat was worse than we thought. His ship A.I is the only one with first bound knowledge of this threat."

"If I could I may question him in my investigation." The Arbiter said.

"Of course."

"Right now." Lord Hood said. "We can't let them know about this. We must first get into a alliance and help them push back this threat. Lasky, Thal and I will get back to it. R'tas you may want to get back to your fleet."

Everybody got their orders. Let's just hope it ends well. Let's just hope something as powerful as a threat as the Didact or the Flood won't rise.

**Aboard UNSC Infinity, hangar bay, 2557 Military Calendar, 1036**

The Master Chief walked down through the busy hangar, filled with flight crews, Marines, Spartans and Infinity support crews.

Dubbo and Carol lead a little ahead. O'Brian was somewhere in the mess hall with Rookie and Dutch, apparently catching up on 'old memories' with friends.

Really the only person that was close to the Master Chief was Johnson and Cortana….

Stop. Dubbo has been good to you. He served with the Master Chief ever since Installation 04 and his old squad well the Master Chief and his old squad were never really 'close' but it was better than nothing.

Another person walked by Dubbo and Carol and rudely bumped into the Master Chief. The Chief recognized his armor, Spartan-III scout armor mostly used by snipers.

The Master Chief caught up to Dubbo and Carol.

"Sorry about that." Dubbo said. "He just came off the bird from the reinforcements. His names Jun or something, apparently he's a surviving Spartan-III."

"He served on Reach." Carol said. "I remembered him; he was part of Noble Team. I served alongside him in New Alexandria."

"You don't say?" Dubbo asked.

"Well Spartans aren't exactly….the most welcoming." Carol whispered. The Master Chief was only able to catch that from his HUD's enhanced sensors.

What she said hurt a little but it was true in a way. We didn't exactly know what to say all the time.

"What are you leading me to?" The Master Chief asked. "Captain Lasky just told me 'It was something I wanted to see'."

"Trust me we don't know either, Captain Lasky just told us a location and to lead you there."

"Sort of like follow the leader like in Elementary school." Carol said.

**Aboard UNSC Infinity, Classified location, 2557 Military Calendar, 1038**

"What do you mean I can't see him?" Cortana said furious, she was as angry as she was during her rampancy. "Captain Lasky said I could."

"Look I know what Captain Lasky said. But it may be dangerous, all me, Roland and Vergil want to do is just run a couple of tests just to make sure that you're settling into your new….Forerunner body and to make sure that the rampancy is completely gone." Commander Florence said.

"Even if I have rampancy, it won't hurt just to let me see him!" Cortana said but she knew the real reason why. If they find out about that…..voice…damn please don't let them. She can control it this time though, she can, she will. She just wanted to see him, it'll make things better.

"Look lady, seeing your boyfriend right now might trigger something bad ok? You're an A.I these tests will take minutes." Florence said a little angery.

His anger was probably due to the fact he look liked he had a very rough day and the fact that his CNI chip is holding a A.I data card. Why though, what the Hell did he do? Another fact was his complete shock to realize that the Master Chief was still alive and aboard the Infinity.

Everybody's favorite hero.

"If Roland wanted to test me where is he?" Asked Cortana. She saw the Engineer Vergil in the corner tapping on a computer.

"Roland is busy at the moment. He was the one to assign the tests. Another A.I will be monitoring you for this bit."

Mark pulled something out of his CNI chip and inserted it into the Holo-display next to Cortana's.

A person appeared that looked like he was in his early twenties. He was light blue with jeans, a t-shirt, a Ravens football team hat and….Nikes. Jeez those have been out of style for three hundred years.

"Ah so this is are little…..trouble maker. Ms. Cortana, I'm Contradiction, fourth generation A.I." He made a mocking bow. For some reason the tone of his voice was really annoying.

He finally looked at Cortana. In the way a man looked over a woman at the beach or a bar.

"Ha, guess you need another way to get a man's attention?" Contradiction said sarcastically.

"Excuse me?" Cortana said a little angrily. He was starting to piss her off now.

"Oh come on! That is literally the skimpiest outfit I ever seen on a A.I.!" He said smiling.

"Hey at least I don't have to resort to the A.I. personality of a five year old." She made it obvious with the angry on her face and her fist clenching.

"Hmmm you got me there." He said with a little frown, he noticed Cortana's clenched fist and it made him blink in a confused sort of way. "Just if I don't look directly at your face, then you'll know why. SO!" He said 'SO' with a eccentric smile and clapping his hands together. "Anyways let's get these tests started or….what?"

"Can I please just see him? Before the tests now please?" Cortana said pleading turning to Florence

"Weren't you listing to him or…..just ignoring the conversation? Contradiction said, even more sarcastically.

"Look I just had been through Hell a few days ago…." Cortana said a little sad. He looked at Contradiction and she could tell that he wanted to say something annoying.

Contradiction looked to Florence. "Is this how most women are like? Because if it is then thank God I'm not human." It was obvious he wanted to say something to Cortana but decided to relay I to Florence.

"Uhh….." Replied Florence a little shell-shocked. "Ma'am please excuse my idiotic sexist…..friend." He said a little unsure. "Anyways….I'm sorry but we are going to have to give you the tests, I'm just following my orders." His face read that he didn't really want to do this either because of Cortana's begging.

"So…."Contradiction said. "I'm going to have you take off all your clothes for this test….." The look from Cortana made him stop on mid-sentence. "Uhhhhhhhh…..I'm just kidding, I kid a lot." It also didn't help that the fact that Cortana accessed his data base through the Holo-display and he couldn't block her since Cortana knew a lot more than he did. "Ahhhh…please don't kill me. Your very beautiful and yup."

He kneeled over like he was kicked in the stomach and his face didn't look so good.

"Hey whoa whoa take I easy." Florence said looking from Contradiction to Cortana

"Hey…hey…hey ok ok…stop please." Contradiction said in a pleading voice.

Florence saw that she obviously wouldn't stop and he looked over to Virgeil.

"Start it up!"

No don't. Vergil tapped on the computer. It only took seconds.

The tests activated some sort of lock restraint and her control over Contradiction ended.

"Anyways." Contradiction said looking at her angry, one hand over his stomach. "Can you stop trying to kill me for making some jokes!? All your systems are green; your processing power is way off the charts which is to be expected. Your internal cognitive process….is…that's weird." Contradiction brought out a monitor; he typed something into it and appeared a data display of Cortana. Contradiction's face turned from that stupid sarcastic look into something serious.

"Vergil!" Contradiction yelled. "Take a look at this." The Engineer floated to Contradiction. Florence backed off a little to make room.

The Engineers head twist sideways and he tapped something onto Contradiction's computer screen.

"Damn I thought it was just a theory." Contradiction whispered. "No wonder why you broke protocol and tried to kill me….angry…the emotion thing I should've fucking seen it."

"God damn it and my fucking head." Cortana heard Contradiction whisper

"What's going on?" Florence asked.

"Something that your small brain can't handle." Contradiction replied, still looking at the computer screen. He signed and put his hand to his face. "Alright Cortana you can see him…I guess. I'm going to have to talk to Roland about this and some other….people."

"Wait, wait, wait, you said her ICP was off does that mean….." Florence was saying.

"Metastabilty." Cortana said. "In reality I survived rampancy it shouldn't be this hard to figure out."

Contradiction looked to Florence. "Well…..she is as Human as she can get…the only difference is that…" He shrugged. "She's a Hologram and her monthly won't be as bad as others." He said, in that slightly sarcastic tone but he still held that serious face.

"Not funny asshole." Florence said.

"Well somebody is a little touchy. Can nobody here take a joke?" Contradiction looked to Cortana. "Oh come on, if you can't make fun of serious stuff then you shouldn't even talk about it."

"How did they not terminate you when they created you?" Cortana said.

"Hey I'm just a lovable guy." He said smiling.

The doors finally opened and Cortana could see green armor with a orange visor.

John.


	10. A uneasy Alliance

**AN: Again I apologize for the long updates...as usual. First somebody caught the L.A Noire ****reference but not the Assassin's Creed reference, you know 'Auditore family'. Also people who complain about my grammar and spelling, yes I do apologize about that also. The last chapter...all but one of my Betas weren't able to and I had to edit it myself...just disastrous. Anyways I swear to GOD if you guys don't get these references I'm killing myself (joke). Also note that I capitalize 'Hell' all the time on purpose.**

**If you really want to clean up the grammar then PM me so I can send you the chapters early so you can Beta them...or something...because I could reread a chapter a million times over and still not notice a mistake.**

**Unknown location aboard UNSC Infinity, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 1039**

Militaristic, that would be the main word Liara would describe the UNSC as. She first suspected this when she first learned of the size of their warships. While she didn't even want to believe it, especially when not a single trace of element zero was found, even when Liara and the rest of her crew boarded.

She mostly began to suspect this with how they called their head admiral "Lord". Even within the Turian Hierarchy the only person who was given that kind of title was the Primarch, the Turian's king. Unfortunately she didn't know if this had any political hold of any kind to it, if this was a bloodline title, or the Admiral actually had to achieve something great to get his position.

Another thing was that Lord Hood completely avoided Liara's question on their political government's response, he just ignored it. And what Lord Hood said what the UNSC would do in the case of a threat emerging, such as one from a 'supposedly' non-hostile species. If their military could do and would that without government intervention what else can they do?

However Liara suspected the cause of this was from this "Great War". Maybe it was so bad that their military had to take over because a civilian government's response was to long of a process or could not handle what was happening, and they just haven't gone back to civilian government.

She also got the feeling that they know something important. When Shepard was explaining the Reapers to Captain Lasky and Captain Florence, their made faces and when Contradiction called Shepard a idiot…..well…that really didn't help keep their 'secret'.

It could be possible that they actually know something about the Protheans, since their empire expanded across the galaxy. Yet their technology is obviously not based on that ancient race's technology.

Now the 'new species' is a different story. Judging from the Arbiter's armor his people are….ceremonial, and have a tie to tradition. That cylinder on his side, it read high amounts of plasma energy, channeled through and kept together to form a sabre. It was a plasma sword from what they could tell.

Florence said that this species was once part of the 'Covenant' and that they and the UNSC were in a war. So they trust them more than they trust us? Or did this species have to go through the same process, or worse…Humanity did have a streak of being cruel.

But how this species would react to another new set of contacts was unknown. They seemed to be here on the request of the UNSC.

The door opened and Lasky, Hood and the Arbiter reentered the room, each having a stoic face, the Councilors turned their attention from the A.I Roland, who was actually having a productive conversation unlike if they were to have one with Contradiction.

"Councilors…sorry about the interruption, we may proceed with this meeting." Lasky said nodding with a smile. Ever since this meeting began, Liara automatically knew what role Lasky played in this. Lord Hood was a military commander not a politician, and Lasky knew a lot more on how to ease up heated situations and smooth talk people. But most of all he really was genuine, like what Captain Florence said, he really believed in what he was doing.

"It's fine, we understand." Tevos said also nodding. "Let's get to business; the first matter is your occupation of the planet."

Instead of Lasky stepping up it was Lord Hood who did this time. "We unfortunately didn't know the situation very well. We assure you that as little damage as possible was done to private and public property and that no citizens were harmed by us, we are currently eliminating the Reaper forces that are present on the planet. We will not hold it with occupation forces or put the planet in any sort of martial law. If you wish we will remove our forces from the planet after the Reaper threat has been neutralized."

"Admiral that's not our decision to make, the planet: Illium is a sovereign planet and is not under the control of the Council."

Both Lord Hood's and Lasky's faces were obviously confused and the Arbiter's face was the same as before. Liara probably should've explained to them about the concept of the Terminus Systems.

"Ok…." Lasky said trying to make sense of the situation. "…Who is in charge of the planet then? For all we know they might want our forces stationed groundside to help with the aftermath."

Tevos knew better than to tell them the truth. Illium was controlled largely by corporations and gangs. If the UNSC found out then it might not end well, the UNSC probably had no concept of a planet being controlled by something other than a government.

Tevos was smart enough to realize this to. "Unfortunately when the Reapers hit the planet, they targeted government facilities leaving the planet in utter chaos, the only thing that might be recognized as any type of government at the moment by them would be the Systems Alliance."

"If necessary…." Lasky said. Probably on the suspicion that the Council is basically trying to scrape together what is left, and the fact that they're hiding something or maybe it was Lasky rejecting the unfortunate truth of Council word is law. "….the UNSC will restore order and, if necessary, help restore a civilian government."

"That won't be necessary." Sparatus said. "Leave it to the Council to restore order."

Lasky raised his eyebrow at this. He knew what they're doing. They literally just said that the Council didn't control the planet but….they did.

"Ok….the UNSC will not occupy territory of another government. We will remove our forces when asked by the Illium government. Like you said and which I agree to, Illium is a sovereign planet, and a sovereign planet is ruled by their government."

None of the Councilors made any hint that this bothered them. Not even Sparatus.

"Councilors." Lord Hood said. "The two major issues now, and you may agree, are how we got here, and the future relationships of the UNSC and the Covenant splinter Cell to the Council and other Xeno governments."

"Admiral." Tevos said, a little flustered for some reason. "As this may be all too sudden, the Council and other Citadel species have a long tradition of….welcoming new species to the Citadel and making it public, on the Citadel we may discuss those issues there."

Lasky stepped forward. "This isn't public now? A mystery force coming through a Forerunner artifact and wiping out a force both hostile to you, the UNSC and the Covenant Cell?"

Forerunner artifact? Is this what they call ancient Reaper technology?

"For this is classified but rumors always find their way around…." She was silent for a moment looking down; she looked back up a little more confident."…I'm asking for you to come to the Citadel…both you and the Arbiter….that and a declassification of your Intel, history…your technology."

**Classified location aboard UNSC Infinity, 2557 Military Calendar, 1042**

Lasky looked down crossing his arms. Unfortunately Lasky didn't know what to say, what she asked for literally defies almost every law in the UNSC military, not only that but she wanted to bring them to a unknown planet. Yet there was desperation in her voice and Lasky wasn't sure if this was a mask to persuade him or actually desperation. Sure he could see going to the planet 'Citadel'…

Lasky looking back up, rubbing his head…after the headache of figuring out they lost Earth…and when he thought about the situation… he hadn't been this angry since CAM. Hell it was out of character of himself, he would never do this…he even found himself cursing more than he usually did.

Before Lasky could answer anything Lord Hood stepped forward, he still wore the straight emotionless face….Christ how the Hell is he going to react?

"Councilors I can say with no regret that there will be some things that the UNSC will never declassify such as our ship designs and technology blueprints or the location of Earth…." Hood looked around the crowd, Lasky could see the Councilors react to Hood saying Earth, they got the message alright. "…Yet I understand that in a alliance we need to be more…..open…and I hope that the same will be applied to you and if this Citadel is required…" He talked about the Citadel as more of a question looking to Liara.

She obviously picked up on that. "The Citadel isn't like anything else; it's a giant space station….built by the Protheans." She seemed to be choosing her words right there. "It's used to house the Citadel council, three million people and now…refugees of this war."

She tapped something on that Omi-tool and on her holo-display appeared a circle with four spooks pointing out of it, it was smooth and little lights appeared within the inside of the spooks.

Liara continued. "It's one of the largest structures in the galaxy standing at 40 kilometers and it has its own inherited atmosphere."

Lasky saw that they took pride in this structure and he couldn't help but smile a little. "Hmmm 40 kilometers impressive, I was thinking this was a planet…"

Lord Hood interrupted Lasky. "If you don't mind sending a database to one of our ."

Liara tapped on her Omi-tool some more and Roland tapped on a display he popped up. "Yeah…that's what I thought, Forerunner construct yet…with a unknown purpose as usual."

Hood nodded. "I thought so too."

Liara raised an eyebrow at this looking from Roland to Hood. "I heard you say Forerunners before….do you mean the Protheans?"

**Aboard Covenant dropship, 54 miles outside Nos Astras, 2557 Military Calendar, 1045**

"So what are we here for again?"

"Advance vanguard teams." The Elite captain said his voice slightly louder than the engines.

Romeo nodded and looked to Rookie who as usually shrugged. The dropship held a very uneasy mixture of Elites, Grunts and Jackals loyal to the Covenant Cell and UNSC Marines and ODSTs. At least it was better than them gutting each other at every second but still it was disturbing to share a room with a Xeno. Most of the other soldiers here felt the same way. Michael Corleone, one of Romeo's men under his command wouldn't stop causally aiming his gun at a Elite from his hip.

"Too simple don't you think?" Romeo replied back.

The Elite just slightly shook his head.

Well at least UNSC HIGHCOM didn't put the Xenos in charge, because at that point Romeo wouldn't have even followed orders. No it was 'joint command' whatever the fuck that meant.

Something exploded near the dropship and the entire thing shook, tripping some soldiers and knocking over some Grunts. Another explosion and the ship shook worse than before.

"Opening up the hatch." The pilot yelled on the comms. Both sides of the interior lapsed away giving away the outside world. A Grunt grabbed the plasma turrets hanging outside the ship and started to open fire.

"I'm reading multiply neutral Xeno soldiers and fighters already engaging the enemy." The pilot said.

Romeo looked to his men and the Elite captain. "Alright ladies you remember the game rules, don't shoot the neutral Xenos and don't shoot our 'allies'." He said that looking to the Elite captain.

"We'll try our best." The Elite whispered.

From the outside Romeo could see some sort of small frigate and some bombers engage a squid hostile destroyer. And below were the small lights of blue lasers and red and black lasers being exchanged from cover.

Hovering above the surface lower than the dropship they were in was the bright green of painted Covenant dropships and the tan/green of pelican, each one dropping off soldiers and vehicles.

Their ship got lower to the surface with each passing second and the once probably lush landscape was scared with debris and the black of artillery fire.

The ship finally hovered over the surface as the UNSC and Covenant Cell soldiers ran towards the wreckage debris where some neutral Xenos were holding out.

"GO GO GO!" The Elite captain yelled and all the soldiers in the cargo hold, even the Grunt gunners jumped out of ship, a dozen at a time. When each individual soldier hit the ground, they were met with enemy fire which seemed to be coming from all directions.

Romeo hit the ground hard and looked around; there was no cover anywhere except for the wreckage which seemed to be the remains of a ship. It roofed over some areas so they were protected from artillery and fire, like a fort.

"Move to the wreckage, it's the only cover out here!" Romeo yelled to the troops, each turned towards the debris, firing back at the enemy, some dying and some getting injured and then carried by another soldier. The wreckage was a good three football fields away, and he could see some sort of AA batteries fire from the makeshift fort.

Romeo looked to his left and saw the Elite captain shot in his side on the ground, wounded but alive. Never leave a man behind even if he was a non-human.

Romeo sprinted and slide to the Elite's position; he didn't know exactly what to do so he grabbed the Elite's shoulder and tried to drag him…..which didn't seem to work on a eight foot tall monster.

Romeo saw Rookie and yelled at him to get over here and help him. When he finally reached him, he grabbed the Elite's other shoulder and proceeded to help pull the Captain to safety.

Romeo saw a Elite minor a few yards away from them, firing back at the blazes of enemy weapons fire.

"Soldier get over here and help us!" Romeo yelled and the Elite ran to them and grabbed the Elite's leg, helping the two drag him.

Michael Corleone came out of nowhere and kept three yards ahead of them providing cover fire with his MA5B. Screams of other soldiers was heard louder than the bullets and lasers. Men ran past them and besides them either getting killed or still moving. A Jackal stood beside them shielding them from fire from his own personnel shield.

"Well this plan seems to be going well!" Romeo yelled to the Elite captain, who was still in a unconscious state.

Romeo could see the men from other battalions being annihilated and very few making it, the vehicles exploding and some providing cover fire.

Romeo and the squad made it to the wreckage, to what look liked a makeshift door and were meet not by UNSC or Covenant Cell soldiers but by soldiers in white armor and blue visors. There were four each with different colored markings and backpacks. All four of them guarded the entrance with two crouching and two standing at the edges of the door. All four of them fired back at the enemy as the enemy fired back at them

"Get inside now." One of them said in a deep gruffly voice, yelling over the gunfire. He had red markings which looked like blood.

The soldiers dragged the Elite into the building and pass the front door.

"Might want to clean up your house." Romeo said as he let go of the Elite once they were inside.

"Scorch close the door." A soldier said with orange markings on his armor. The two soldiers crouching got back into the wreckage and a soldier with grey and yellow markings smashed a button and the doors locked, leaving the bullets outside.

The soldier in orange markings looked to the UNSC and Covenant Cell soldiers, which now made up of Romeo, Rookie and Corleone, the Elite Captain, the other Elite and a Grunt.

"Busy day gentlemen?" The one they called Scorch said.

"Cut the chatter." The soldier in orange markings said. "Sev get back to the front and provide sniper support, Fixer get online with Alliance command tell them that first contact soldiers have entered our base but have not attacked us."

The orange one looked to the ODSTs and the Xenos. "And you are?"

Romeo stood up. "Captain Romeo Agu, 19th ODST Division, UNSC, this is Lieutenant Rookie, and Corporal Corleone and whatever the fuck those are." Romeo said pointing at the Elites and the Grunt.

"Scorch get a medic." With that Scorch was gone and all was left was the orange squad leader. "You can call me Boss, captain of Delta squad, Alliance special forces. Now I have to ask what the Hell are your forces doing here?"

Romeo stood in front of him with his weapons still in his hands. "We are here as an advance force for the main wave, you guys had the only cover within damn light years."

"Then you better be planning to help us. Right now our orders are to hold off the Reapers until the Alliance can provide reinforcements; we still have dozens of civilians and injured soldiers who survived this crash. We read the reports we know what you and your people are doing with 'Xeno' civilians." Boss held his rifle defensively and he made himself clear, we will complete our orders, with you or not.

Romeo looked back to his squad, a Xeno female medic who looked strangely human was helping the Elite , is you want to use the word 'helping' she was just standing there over the Elite obviously having no idea where to begin._ Don't act hostile, you're Human, you're a soldier. Under UNSC law you will not disobey a direct order from UNSC HIGHCOM._

"Sir." Corleone said, looking from Romeo to Boss. "I think it's agreed that we need to help them hold this position long enough for our reinforcement to arrive. We can use the shuttles to evacuate the military personnel and their civilians, we can also use it to evac our troops."

Artillery shells pounded the base. Boss motioned for Scorch. "Whatever you do you better not stop us from our mission. Scorch, join with Sev. Fixer once you finish your report get those fighters above to target those Reaper artillery positions."

"Sir?" Corleone said to Romeo.

"Fine we'll go with your plan Corleone, I get all the credit."

**Aboard UNSC Infinity, classified location, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 1046**

"After we finish up the Reapers on Illium we will meet you on this Citadel." Hood said.

"I think you're ignoring my question." Liara said a little impatient.

Both Lasky and Hood looked at each other while the Arbiter slightly shook his head, Roland looked uncomfortable.

"Is this part of the classified information?" Shepard asked.

"In a way." Lasky said, eyeing Roland. Then in that moment was a awkward silence, with the Council shifting and the UNSC standing there, until the Shepard spoke up.

"If it is you don't have to share it or…you can wait until the Council meeting on the Citadel."

"I think that would be wise." Lord Hood said then he looked to Roland. "Roland did she send you the coordinates?"

"Yeah and you won't believe where the Hell we are." Roland smiling and laughing, he pulled up a map of the galaxy and displayed two points, one where Illium was and one where the Citadel was.

Each one of their faces except for Lord Hood's was surprise to see where they were in the galaxy.

"Well what a surprise." The Arbiter said.

"And what region of the galaxy do you live in?" Shepard asked.

"Classified for now." Lasky said then all of a sudden turning to the Council. "I think that this meeting is adjourned until we meet at the Citadel and make this public. For now we will repeal this threat and help restore a civilian government."

The councilors looked to each other and all nodded; Tevos turned her attention to Lasky. "Alright Captain we shall not meet until then." Her voice held a hint of dissatisfaction. With that Tevos pressed an invisible button and all three of them disappeared.

Lasky turned his attention to Shepard and his squad. "Shepard if you and your friends can follow me."

**Aboard UNSC pelican, two kilometers from advance forces, 2557 Military Calendar 1049**

"Roger teams stand by." The captain yelled through the comms to the three Spartans IIs and the other Spartan IVs in the cargo room. Each one of them lock and loading their weapons. For some reason a Spartan IV brought a radio and started to play Creedence Clearwater's Fortunate Son

God knows how Fred knew that six hundred year old song and God knows why the Spartan IV was playing it.

The cargo hatch opened as the second wave of Pelicans and Phantoms flew over the rolling hills trying to avoid the Squid flak. Some were hit and destroyed. Pelicans carried Scorpions, hogs, Cobras and Wolverines while the heavy drop pods flew higher in the air carrying either firebases or Elephants.

"All teams this is General Urban Holland we have multiply UNSC personnel trapped within a crashed ship half a kilometer from the landing zone. We have confirmed reports of Human soldiers and civilians and Xeno soldiers and civilians at the crash site. Spartan team Alpha you are two evacuate those civilians at all costs, even if it's not Human."

"Even if it's not human? You mean we're helping those God damn Xenos?" A Spartan-IV said.

"Cut the chatter." Kelly yelled to the Spartan, after that he wisely shut up.

The pelican shook as more and more flak filled the air, Pelicans and Heavy drop pods started to make their descant.

"Stand by thirty seconds." The pilot said. The Spartans started to walk towards the opened cargo doors as the rolling hills beneath them as it filled up with the UNSC Marines and firebases dropped off by the Navy. Fred was the closest to the cargo door holding on with one hand while the other held a Spartan Laser.

The pelican descended lower and finally it was twenty feet above the ground still moving at the same speed.

"Roger, LZ reached." The pilot said. Fred motioned for the Spartans to jump and two by two the Spartans exited the pelican as it still moved, finally in only seconds Fred and Kelly were left. Both looked at each other and jumped out of the pelican.

They hit the ground with a thud and took out their assault weapons. Fred could see the crashed Xeno ship as small arms fire shot out from the front.

"Fred can you get a look?" Kelly said. Fred nodded and used his helmet to advance his vision. He saw four soldiers in white armor and blue visors with different color markings holding off legions of squids by themselves. "Do you see our guys?"

"Uh…negative I only see squids and four Xeno soldiers."

"Ok, we need to get to the crashed ship; the other Spartans know where to go. Remember the civilians are our first priority. Wanna race me there?" Kelly said which got Fred's attention.

"Why not?" Fred said. With that they were both off with Kelly much farther ahead than Fred.

**Inside crashed ship, 2186 Citadel Calendar, 1050**

"I want a sniper maneuver now!" Boss yelled to Sev as he took a experimental sniper attachment and clicked it to his rifle. "Where the Hell are those first contact soldiers?" Boss ducked as Reaper fire flew over him. He shot back killing the Reaper who opened fire.

"They're fighting off the Reapers on the right side!" Fixer yelled. He pointed something out for Sev to shoot, he took the shot and a Reaper banshee's head was gone.

"How many bloody troopers does it take to hold off one side?"

"A couple companies apparently!" Scorch yelled as he threw a grenade. "When's the Alliance supposed to send evac or was it the UNSC that was supposed to!?"

"Just hold them off." The Boss replied. There seemed to be more and more Reapers heading towards the crash site. Two replacing each one they kill. Boss could see in the distance a Reaper destroyer battle a First contact ship in the air. If that first contact ship fails then that destroyer will be all over them.

Just another day for Delta squad.

Boss decided to contact Romeo through the comms. "Romeo how are your men holding up?"

"Good you sure you don't need reinforcements…..?" He asked with the sound of bullets in the background.

"I'm sure." With that Boss ended the conversation in mid-sentence, he looked to his squad and as usually they were holding out with no trouble.

"Oh no you don't." Sev said. Boss looked to what Sev was aiming his sniper at and saw a Husk split in two still moving, Sev took the shot and the Reaper went down.

"Nice shot." Fixer said.

"That wasn't me."

Boss looked and saw two soldiers in green armor and orange visors coming in from the left firing off bullets into the Reaper crowds. The Reapers shot back but it either missed or hit the soldier's shields. The two soldiers moved into the Reaper crowd, cutting through until they reached Delta Squad, tearing Reapers apart with no trouble, stabbing banshees, ripping the weapons off cannibals.

"Well isn't this interesting?" Boss said.

**Unknown location, 1051**

"They are so old that even our masters have forgotten."

"Do they know of them?"

"No, nobody does but us and what we do know is very little."

"And what do we know of them?"

"They created us."

"That's not all…."

"They also created the most dangerous threat to this galaxy."

"Is it still alive?"

"I do not even know…I hope 117 finished them off."


End file.
